Facing Demons
by Vitreum
Summary: Severus SnapeOC ( but a good OC). Arranged marriage, baby daughter, cameo by Lupin...all the good stuff. Basically, if you want to see Snape fall in love in spite of himself, read.
1. The Letter

Severus Snape had a lot on his mind.

The last month of the school year was, as always, hectic to say the least. The final exams for all seven years had to be prepared and late assignments marked, although the young professor had it in his mind to do away with the customary "catch up" week that the previous potions teacher had introduced. In addition to this panic the Slytherin Head of House, Professor Estrellus, had finally passed on. As Severus was wont to muse, the overbearing workaholic had finally entered permanent retirement. Severus had inherited his House post, naturally; it was Dumbledore's way of sweetening the bitter situation he had forced Severus into.

Severus still pondered over the nuances of the conversation he had had with the Headmaster that morning three years ago. Yes, morning; in accordance with pathetic fallacy it should have been late at night in the midst of a wailing storm. The Potters had been slain two days before, a street full of Muggles blown up the day after that, and by the evening of the incident with Black the Mininstry of Magic had dissolved into complete pandemonium that would last for another week. There had also been a few last stands taken by the remaining throngs of die-hard Death Eaters. Severus had thoughtfully kept a low profile during all of this. His own personal outcome was uncertain. While he had been an informal member of the Order and their chief informer, there was also the sticky issue of the rather prominent black mark on his left forearm. As well, the full extent of his services to either side could not be vouched for by anyone. Severus had kept to his secretive ways even after joining the Order and as a result not even Dumbledore was in full knowledge of his doings. While Severus' reticent tendencies had kept him safe during the dark years of Britain's magical community, it was going to cost him once things lightened up.

And so, on that inappropriately bright and warm November morning Severus found himself in the Headmaster's office, grudgingly holding a cup of tea and being offered a lemon drop. Severus had been in hiding at Hogwarts ever since he had tipped off Dumbledore about Voldemort's plan to pay the Potters a visit. This particular morning was the first time in a week that Dumbledore had sought out Severus; he wanted to discuss the future.

What it came down to was, the Aurors at the Minitstry had it in for the young Deatheater. He was on their list and it would only be a matter of time before he wound up in Azkaban with the DeFontaines and Sirius Black and all the others.

"The thing about secrets is that they are so terribly convenient between two people, but once they are divulged, at _trials_ for instance," Dumbledore gave Severus a rather pointed look, "they become rather condemning."

Severus remained silent at this.

"I am afraid that if you do subject yourself to the scrutiny of our courts, I will not be able to do anything for you. I know only enough of your secrets to guarantee you a place in prison. And if I do not defend you, it seems that either way you will wind up in some form of bondage. Either literally bound to a wall in some dank prison cell, or bound in service to the Mininstry, helping them tear down the remaining Followers. It's a dog-eat-dog justice system, so I am told."

This was true. Many Death Eaters were able to escape punishment by turning in fellow Voldemort supporters.

"But you are too crucial to me for either of those options. We must think of the _future_, after all. Do you understand what I am saying, Severus?"

For Severus it was perfectly clear. He was as well aware as Dumbledore that the prophecy had not yet been fully carried out.

"Then it is settled. I will keep you here. The Ministry will not object to the arrangements, I think. As long as I keep you here with me I should think that Crouch and the Minister will know to keep their distance. Although I am worried about Alastor—"

"In hiding? Here? For Merlin knows how many years?"

"Yes, here, my boy, but not in hiding and definitely not idle. I daresay we will find something to keep you occupied..."

And thus was the foundation of the current relationship the young potions professor shared with his headmaster: a mutual understanding of each one's need for the other's services, a promise of discretion especially in regards to the past, and an abundance of restless tension on Severus' part.

On this particular day when Severus Snape had so much on his mind, this restless tension had just about come to a head. He felt nearly ready to spontaneously deduct Gryffindor two hundred house points in an attempt to placate himself. He had just spent the entire day introducing the new Astronomy professor to her post, as her predecessor was currently more preoccupied with things geological than celestial. Professor Estrellus' successor, Professor Sinistra, was an unattractive middle aged witch with one eye clenched in a perpetual squint from telescope overuse. However it was her tedious personality that really set off Severus. He feared there would now be another Trelawney-of-the-tower to deal with.

There had also been the mundane hindrances associated with babysitting an entire house of the surliest students at Hogwarts, who all were putting the new young Head of House to the test. So far Professor Snape had withstood the trial without revealing a chink in his armor. This was in part grace of his heinous end-of-term temper.

But the real weight on Severus' mind was a heavy mass of personal matters. Although most of his students would never have thought of it, Severus Snape did have a personal life away from school. Admittedly, even Severus had avoided acknowledging his personal life in several years, but the fact of the matter was that his father had died.

Or rather, his father had finally died. At the news, which had arrived by owl post that morning in the tiny handwriting of his mother, Severus had felt the lifting of an enormous weight from his being. It at once allowed him to breath easier and think about things he had not thought about in years. He thought a lot about his relationship, or lack thereof, with his father. Mostly, however, he thought about his dark-haired mother. Once beautiful, her saint-like Venetian features had been crumpled under the back of her husband's hand and the sharpness of her quick black eyes had been dulled by tears.

While news of his father's death had lifted Severus' temperament momentarily, it soon plummeted again once the serious soul searching began. If Severus ever wanted to reconcile things with his mother, now was the moment. Now was the moment for Severus to go home, to see his mother and ask for her forgiveness; and, of course, to burn every vestigial relic of his father.

It was as Severus was penning a brief note to his mother that the final penny dropped. As he read his letter one last time with a dissatisfied frown on his brow a regal-looking black owl silently swooped in through the tall window of his study. Severus had been warily expecting this owl for some time. Eyes not straying from the yellow orbs of the owl, he folded the parchment and placed it to one side on his desk. He took the letter attached to the owl's leg. It was thin and sealed with the crest of a very old, very pure wizarding family. Severus opened it.

He put it down just as slowly a minute later after reading it three times. It stated, very succinctly, that his wife had entered labor that morning and now he had a child.


	2. The Old Snape Manor

Hey all. I didn't want to put any author's notes in the first chapter, so as not to delay the reader's plunge into my story by tedious babble, so here they are now.  
  
I own the Harry Potter franchise. I make millions a year. That explains why I'm dicking away all my time writing fanfiction for free, right? Yep, definitely adds up.  
  
This fic is dedicated to all people who would like to see Snape finally thaw like frozen hot dogs in warm water. I realize this has been done before, and with both the elements I am going to use in my story. The whole romance and the whole Snape-has-a-child thing are old hat, but I've found only a few fics that have really done either of these ideas justice. To see these fics, please browse my favorites list. I have no reservations in recommending them to you.  
  
While my aim is to thaw out Snape, I am not going to completely humanize him. He will still be our sardonic, cynical old bastard, but perhaps he will feel less hostile to his world. Although he will be thawed out, he will retain some of the tough chewy-ness that the aforementioned thawed hot dogs possess. (I think I should get some sort of prize for creating a metaphor that compares Snape to a weiner.)  
  
In case you didn't catch on at all in the first chapter, this story is set when Snape is in his early twenties. This story does not precede the books, however. It's a whole different story that does not line up with what Rowling has written.  
  
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Severus felt rather smug. He had already promised to visit his mother in the letter he sent the night before, and so he did not have to worry about Dumbledore denying him permission to leave post for a few days. He knew Dumbledore was all too sympathetic with the victim's of his own sneaky manipulations. The Headmaster also had the unbearable habit of trying to encourage Severus to confront his demons, as if it was any of his business.  
  
The real genius in this plan was that Severus would be able to visit his wife's family while away without specifically asking permission to go see them. The less involved Dumbledore was in Severus' personal life the better.  
  
Severus' smugness was comparative, however. He still felt as edgy as the day prior. He irritably rubbed the bridge of his nose as he strode into the Headmaster's office.  
  
"Severus," greeted the Headmaster. "Won't you join me for some tea?"  
  
Severus brushed the niceties aside. "My father died yesterday. I've already owled my mother to tell her I will visit her for a few days. I feel I must leave immediately."  
  
Dumbledore considered the young man before him for a neutral moment. "Very well. A substitute can be arranged for your classes. Do you have your class material prepared?"  
  
"It's catch-up week. The students can have this week's classes to make up for missed assignments." Severus was delighted with his own ingenuity.  
  
"Very well. Send my regards to your mother for me."  
  
Severus turned to go. He was surprised at how well the interview had gone. Dumbledore had ceded without prying, giving unwelcome patronage, or saying something annoyingly...annoyingly Dumbledore.  
  
Just as Severus reached the door, however, the annoyingly-Dumbledore statement came.  
  
"And send my congratulations to the young mother, too."  
  
Severus turned with an expression of masked fury.  
  
"I read it on the Society page in today's paper. Good thing I happened to glance through it. I don't normally, you know."  
  
Severus turned in a swirl of black robes and stomped from the room.  
  
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The old Snape manor had been removed from the Floo network some years ago. At first the premise for this action had been to maintain privacy. What with his questionable practices as a husband and father as well as the secret Death Eater balls, it had been practical for the late Aegerus Snape to be in total control of the coming and going of visitors. It had also been a way to control the comings and goings of his wife and son. Along with the disconnecting of the Floo line, anti-apparation charms had been established around the entire property, caging it in better than any wall.  
  
However, later on it had been for Aegerus Snape's own safety. Aegerus was as oily a character as his son, but he was not slick enough to escape the Auror's fingers. After years of dodging Aurors and covering his trail with forged alibis, Longbottom and his wife, an auror team that was seemingly invincible, were finally able to pin something on him. Then, it was a matter of turning in other Death Eaters and giving away secret plans to save himself. Still, it was largely by grace of the magicked isolation of his manor that he was able to evade the Ministry's Aurors for so long.  
  
It was because of this shell of charms protecting the house that Severus was forced to walk to the edge of Hogwarts grounds with a magically lightened valise, Disapparate, and then Apparate at the edge of the Snape manor's grounds. From there he had to trek across the wild lawns and around the line of mossy oaks before he could see it before him: a rain-streaked, dark-windowed stone manor. The elegant roofline pierced the sky and the arched doorway seemed to frown. In the distance, behind the house, the ocean threw itself against the black rocks littering the beach. The entire property, house and all, would always have black look to it, Severus thought to himself. The morning had been a sunny, blue-skied June day, and it still was; however something about the place always made one think of wet, dark December—snow-less and cheerless.  
  
With a resentful exhalation of the air in his chest, Severus continued towards the house. While his father's death made returning home easier, there were still the memories and the old associations repelling him like a bad odor. He had to see his mother, though. He suddenly realized his desire to see her, had become similar to the desire of a child lost in Diagon Alley to be rescued by his mother.  
  
His pace quickened instead of slowing as he drew closer to the front doors. Up the steps; the knocker reverberated as he let it drop. He waited.  
  
And he waited. No one seemed to be coming. A distant caw could be heard from the crows that lived in the line of oaks, but although Severus strained his ears to listen he could not make out the sound of footsteps on the other side of the heavy double doors.  
  
With his back to the door and his throat tight with frustration, Severus took one last look around him before bending down to pick up his valise to leave. It was then that the door finally creaked open. Severus whirled around.  
  
Her hair was as pure black as he remembered it; there was not a grey hair on her head. Her small white hands were as small and as white. But...her eyes. They did not meet his. They were directed at him, but they had the shame and humility in them that her husband had put there; that same shame and humility prevented her from being able to meet even her own son's eyes.  
  
Just the same, a flicker of relief broke the mask of her expression.  
  
"Severus?"  
  
"Mother."  
  
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I would like to point out that the speed at which I update directly correlates to how many reviews I get.  
  
Cheers!  
  
PS—I will respond to any reviewers that request it. 


	3. Last Respects

The dimness engulfed him as he stepped into the foyer. The darkness lost itself in the height of the entrance hall above his head. Shoes clicking on the tiled floor, Severus followed his mothers slight form up the grand staircase.  
  
Everything was as time had left it five years earlier. Shadows whispered across the floor and door columns seemed to lean in as one walked through them. Not an item of furniture had been moved or a wall repapered. The complete absence of change made Severus wonder, cynically, if five years had really passed or if he would always be a skittish eighteen year- old whenever he entered this house.  
  
His mother led him to his old room.  
  
"I've put out fresh linens for you. And had the house elf dust a little."  
  
Severus stepped forward, looking around, but not really taking anything in knew it all already.  
  
He placed his valise on the bed. The clasps gave a dry click as he opened it.  
  
"Your father... is in the drawing room. His wake will be held tomorrow."  
  
Severus still said nothing. He stared intently at the handle of his valise.  
  
"Severus—"  
  
"Mama, perdonami." The Italian tasted awkward on his tongue, but he new that saying it in her language would have the desired effect.  
  
Constanza Snape raised her eyes to meet her son's. She held back for a moment, then outstretched both arms towards her son. Severus stepped forward and, stiffly, embraced her.  
  
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Constanza and her son had tea together in the kitchen. It was a luxury that had been denied to them while Aegerus was alive, but was now reclaimed in his death. Aegerus had forbidden dining in the kitchen as it was where the house elves worked and ate themselves. It was also a way for the late tyrant to intervene in the mother-son trysting. Constanza was a great cook—or at least she had been before her husband had told her she was no longer allowed to perform "servant chores." She had grown up in a household that treated the hearth as the center of the home and food as the sustenance of the soul. When Constanza came to England as the sixteen year- old bride of the heir to an affluent pureblood family, she never fully adjusted to the blandness of English food.  
  
Severus' lips twitched at the layout before him. His mother's interpretation of "tea" was a mountain of biscotti on a platter, a bowl of olives, capelletti, some breed of Italian soup, and, for good measure, zuccotto cake. The teapot was filled with latte macchiato, which was a mild coffee that Severus had favored since he was a small child. He was satisfied to see that his mother had returned to the kitchen after his father's death.  
  
They ate in silence and Severus wondered whether or not he should tell his mother right away about the child. Constanza ruptured the silence first.  
  
"He is going to be buried in the cemetery the day after tomorrow." Severus knew which cemetery she spoke of. It was the family one at the edge of the estate, beyond the gardens.  
  
"Sent out the invitations?" he inquired mildly. His mother flinched, but Severus relished in having a freedom of tongue he had not possessed before. He had always had to be so careful about what he said when his father was alive.  
  
"It will be a private affair."  
  
"That makes sense. He put most of his friends in Azkaban," he said silkily.  
  
Constanza lowered her teacup and frowned at it. "He was your father, Severus. Tuo padre."  
  
"Sfortunato. And sfortunato he was your husband too. But he is neither of those anymore." Severus didn't know whether to be gentle with his mother, and persuade her gradually to see the situation for what it was, or to be blunt and harsh. He was aware that he was having much difficulty keeping the sarcasm out of his voice.  
  
Constanza sighed and hid her face in her hands.  
  
Severus regretted his harshness. He stood and left the kitchen by himself.  
  
He found himself walking faster and faster as his rage built up. He realized he was heading towards the drawing room.  
  
He burst through the double doors of the drawing room with so much force they swung back and hit the walls. At the far side of the room the coffin was propped open, candles all around. A large portrait of Aegerus hung overhead but it hadn't begun to move and speak of its own accord yet. It often took several weeks after the model's death for that to happen. Severus made his way over to the coffin.  
  
His father was no less austere in death, but he seemed to have shrunken since Severus had seen him last. He had been ill for a long time.  
  
The features were the same, naturally. But the high, wide forehead, the downcurving lips, the thin cheeks, all had a waxen translucence to them in death. The prominent, beaklike nose was the feature Severus despised the most. He often found himself rubbing the bridge of his own version of that nose when he thought of his father, just as he was doing now.  
  
He loathed that nose. It made him see his father every time he saw it in the mirror.  
  
Severus lifted his hands to rest upon the lifted lid of the casket.  
  
"Well, father, your wayward son has come to pay his last respects." With that, Severus slammed the lid of the coffin shut.  
  
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For all of you who have never studied a Romance language....  
  
perdonami = forgive me  
  
tuo padre = your father  
  
sfortunato = unfortunately, unluckily 


	4. Celeste

"Be good to her, Severus."  
  
Severus had just told his mother the news. He deeply resented the fact that his mother felt the need to remind him to act decently to her. He had, after all, respected her privacy in the past, and had always provided for her out of his Hogwarts salary.  
  
"A girl or a boy?" Constanza had been anticipating the child. The mother's family had notified Aegerus when she became pregnant. The arrival itself was the only new news.  
  
"I don't know. Does it make a difference?" Severus shrugged into a cloak and looked into the mirror as he did the fastenings. He glared at the reflection of his nose. Seeing that piece of his father took him back to the night before, after he had slammed the casket shut. He had looked up at the portrait of his father and it had seemed to move. Actually, Severus didn't know if it had really moved or if his glare had only intensified, boring into his son. Severus made a note to himself to have that painting taken down and stored in the attic before it began to do anything else.  
  
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Severus took a good look at the house before him through hooded eyes as he climbed the walk to the front doors. It was a manor like his own, but the Nostrum family had obviously invested a lot more money into covering up that sinister look that clung to all the traditional manors of the pureblood clans. The look that stated, there are more secrets than cobwebs in this house. The façade of the house seemed almost welcoming, with warm sandstone columns and tasteful flowers in the freshly turned beds. White lace curtains draped the windows, one of which Severus knew was Celeste's.  
  
Severus recalled the first time he had been inside that room. Lush with rich carpets and drapery, it had seemed oppressive to him that first night. Immediately following the ceremony of the arranged marriage she and Severus had been whisked back to her room where they had been left to fulfill their marital duties. Or rather, their duties to their families. The object of the marriage was to produce an heir, cementing the bond between the two families. Well, Severus thought, they certainly had their heir now. Aegerus Snape had acquired a step up the ladder in pureblood society through the marriage, as well as initiation into the inner circle of Voldemort's followers, and Imperarus Nostrum had been benefited by the connection to the Snape family's purse.  
  
Remembering that first night was something Severus tried to avoid recalling, but always played out in minute detail when it did come to mind, whether he liked it or not. The ceremony had passed by with Severus possessing the vague sensation that he was observing everything through the wrong way of a telescope, distancing his connection with it. The rage in his chest constricted his breathing and made his heart hammer wildly. He had been informed of the marriage only a week prior to the ceremony. The day it happened he had been pulled out of school—he had been only fifteen at the time. She was a fourteen year-old girl he had known by name but had never seen before. At the ceremony he was no more enlightened in her appearance because of the ridiculous wedding veils draped thickly over her form. Back at her dimly lit room, alone, they had awkwardly undressed. Awkwardly, Severus had taken her virginity. In reality it had been no more enjoyable for him than it had been for her, but he still felt as though he had wronged her somehow, even though none of it had been his choice. Afterwards, they did not speak. They lay awake for a long while each pretending to the other to be soundly asleep.  
  
Severus grimaced at the memory as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. The silence between them had never left. Severus had had no desire to dispel it. He knew what her father was, and what she in turn was because of it. But still, each year on their anniversary Severus returned to her room. Neither Aegerus nor Imperarus had had any immediate use for an heir, so the yearly rite was more of a reminder of the link between the two families.  
  
A timid-looking house elf opened the door before Severus had raised his hand to knock. "Tibby takes Master Snape to Master Nostrum now, sir."  
  
Severus followed the house elf down a richly decorated hallway and to the double doors of the drawing room. He pushed on the handle and the door swung open.  
  
Imperarus Nostrum was a short and portly, but by no means jolly, man. His pouchy face had grimness to it and his dress was meant to intimidate. However Severus was in no mood to be intimidated. Severus met his disapproving gaze with defiance.  
  
In front of her husband, sitting down on a chaise, was Severus' mother-in-law. She was not the pale ghost his mother was. No, she had thrived in the politics of arranged marriage. She too was stout and well dressed. Against her breast she clutched a bundle of lacey white silk. Severus assumed the baby must be buried in there somewhere. There was really no other explanation for why she should be holding a bottle at the bundle and making revolting cooing noises.  
  
"Severus, darling, how is my favorite son-in-law?" Madam Nostrum oozed in a falsetto pitch that she seemed to think everyone thought was her real voice.  
  
Your only son-in-law, madam, Severus thought to himself. "Chipper." Severus nearly kicked himself when he heard himself using an expression his students often used. However, the glare the word earned from Nostrum nearly made Severus satisfied that he had used it. He was not afraid to offend his father-in-law now that his father was gone.  
  
Madam Nostrum had also seemed a little surprised at his choice of words. The high society pureblood families often made a point of not talking like the other wizarding social sects. She frowned at his disrespect.  
  
"We were devastated at the news of your father's death," Madam Nostrum said. She obviously thought that that blunt statement would hurt or perhaps pique Severus in some way.  
  
"I found myself being slightly more optimistic." Severus was beginning to take a wicked pleasure in his visit. He hadn't thought it possible. The Nostrums were now both staring at him open-mouthed.  
  
"Your father would be ill from the shame, boy. It is my own great chagrin that he died before teaching you to show respect."  
  
"Much as I would love to have a no-bounds row with you, Nostrum, I'm afraid that I haven't the time. I've come to see my child because you requested it. Afterwards, I must help my mother with the wake. If you would like me to come back for the aforementioned row, you will have to book me at a later date."  
  
While Nostrum bristled and turned color, Severus glided forward to stand before Madam Nostrum. She looked up at Severus, meeting him directly in the eye.  
  
"Girl or a boy?" Severus was blunt. He didn't care so much himself, but he knew his mother's mood would be lifted if she had news of her grandchild to turn over.  
  
Madam Nostrum held back the information for a moment, pursing her lips rather hideously at him. Finally, "It's a girl." She attempted to say it in such a tone that implied it had been some sort of failing of the parents that it had not been a boy, a proper male heir.  
  
As Severus craned his neck to glimpse the baby girl from around the folds of white silk a piercing cry rent the air. Severus started back in annoyance. Madam Nostrum immediately bent, cooing once more, over the bundle with earnest.  
  
"There there, Aegera, there there."  
  
Severus could not believe what he was hearing. Aegera? Was this some sort of joke?  
  
"Aegera?"  
  
Nostrum looked imperiously at Severus. "Yes, her name has already been decided. Aegera Philesia Telomena Snape." His expression was challenging. Severus wondered cynically if they couldn't have added just one more syllable to her name.  
  
He was literally stewing over her name, though. Aegera! It was then that he noticed the contents of the bottle Madam Nostrum was holding and froze. The milk inside the glass was faintly bluish, indicating that it was not, in fact, real breast milk but instead a potion, Lacteus Simulus. During Severus' brief internship at St. Mungo's, which had been brought to an end because of the war, Severus had focused on potion making for the health. From his experience he recognized this particular potion. It was meant for infants whose mothers had died in labor and could get their nourishment from no other source.  
  
"What is that?" Severus asked in a level voice. Madam Nostrum had to follow his line of vision to understand what he was referring to.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I mean, why is she drinking a Lacteus Simulus potion instead of her mother's breast milk?" Wouldn't they have told him in the letter if Celeste had died?  
  
The Nostrums exchanged glances.  
  
"Celeste—"  
  
"Where is she?" Severus' voice was impatient and sharp.  
  
Nostrum was ingrate at having been cut short. "In her room."  
  
Severus paused a moment before gingerly but assertively taking his daughter from her grandmother's arms. She was still screaming fit to burst a lung, or at least a bystander's eardrum. Severus strode from the room, robes swishing behind him. He made his way down the hallway to the staircase. He hadn't exactly planned out what he would do once he found Celeste, but he began climbing the stairs anyways.  
  
Halfway up the staircase a strange thing happened. The baby inexplicably stopped her wailing. Severus halted in his tracks to look down at her, wondering if something was wrong. Looking up at him were two of the bluest eyes he had ever seen. Black eyelashes fringed them, starkly dark against her fair skin. Her tiny mouth was half open, a clear dribble on her chin. Severus hesitated a moment before wiping it gently away with a corner of the blanket. She continued to stare up at him, unblinking. Severus frowned and continued up the stairs.  
  
"Severus?"  
  
Severus' head whipped upwards. Before him stood a young woman in a nightgown. She wore no dressing gown and no slippers on her bare feet. Long reddish hair fell in a disordered array around her shoulders. It was Celeste.  
  
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I will be awarding major prizes to whomever can guess the meanings behind the character names. Prizes include a fully-loaded sports car, a cruise trip in the South Pacific, and various cash prizes. Again, if you value updates, review! 


	5. Speranza

Severus mounted the steps more slowly now. Wariness of this woman now replaced his apprehension of a few minutes ago. She seemed surprised to see him, and equally wary. Her eyes turned to rest on the bundle in his arms.  
  
"I heard her crying," she proffered.  
  
"I would be surprised if someone five miles from here did not." He didn't have the faculties to put full sarcasm into that sentence, though. He was busy assessing her appearance. While she held herself as confidently as one could while wearing nothing but a nightgown, she seemed to be in physical discomfort. She held the banister for support and her face was far too pale. She was also probably cold. The floors were tiled with marble and these older manors tended to have a bad draught.  
  
Celeste felt his eyes penetrating her proud front and raised her chin defiantly. She held out both arms to take her baby. Severus held back a moment, scrutinizing her defensive gesture. He then realized he was probably being unnecessarily cruel and passed the baby over to her.  
  
Severus looked on as Celeste rocked her baby reassuringly in her arms, quietly murmuring something incomprehensible in motherese. He resented the fact that he felt oddly out of place, as though he were spying on something private. He unfastened his black woolen cloak. Celeste didn't notice what he was doing until she felt the weight of the garment on her shoulders. She looked up in surprise.  
  
"You looked cold," he said impatiently. He put his hand firmly behind her elbow and guided her down the hallway to her room. He had to walk slowly to accommodate her own slow pace, and he found it extremely tedious. Once in the room he pulled back the covers for her and helped her into her bed. She seemed very unsure about his seeming chivalry.  
  
"I should feed her now." Her pointed look made it clear to Severus she wanted him to leave. He wasn't finished yet, however.  
  
"Certainly do not let my presence dissuade you from doing so." He then went to station himself in front of her window, looking out over the lawns, so that she would have some privacy from him. After a moment of silence he heard her fiddling with the fabric of her gown, and then the rhythmic sucking sound of his daughter pulling at the milk.  
  
"Why was your mother feeding her a potion?" he demanded.  
  
Celeste paused before answering. "I suppose I angered them. They took her away from me. I haven't seen her since yesterday."  
  
"It is healthier for the baby to drink real milk."  
  
"I know that."  
  
There was another silence. Severus scowled out at the green lawn.  
  
"Why were they angry with you?"  
  
Another hesitant pause ensued. "I had different ideas for a name. I—may have been a bit to forward in expressing my opinions regarding the chosen name."  
  
Severus raised an eyebrow at this.  
  
"What did you have in mind?"  
  
She paused yet again. "Julia. Julia Hope. Or something to that effect"  
  
"Has the other name been written on her birth parchment yet?"  
  
"No. But Healer Feller is returning this afternoon to do so."  
  
"Healer Feller?" Severus snapped his head around to look at Celeste. He forgot that she was breastfeeding. She looked uncomfortable under his gaze and adjusted her nightgown to cover herself more fully. Severus averted his eyes.  
  
"Yes. What of it?"  
  
"Nothing, except that I distinctly remember writing your father a voucher from my personal account to pay for Healer Landon to deliver the baby." He felt her eyes on him then. Healer Landon was very well known in her field and in twenty years had never lost either a mother or a baby. Her mothers were often up on their feet hours after delivery. Severus didn't know if Celeste knew that much about her, but any expectant mother researching Healers for the delivery would have heard of her and her reputation. Severus knew her personally through his internship at St. Mungo's.  
  
"Are you in any discomfort because of the delivery?"  
  
"Some."  
  
"Makes sense. Healer Feller is an incompetent fool. I had to deal with him during my internship."  
  
After another silence, Celeste began again. "Why..." She trailed off.  
  
"I suppose because Feller charges less. He isn't, after all, in any fierce demand. I will speak with your father about this. Then, I will owl Landon immediately."  
  
"But," Celeste said, "is it really any use now?"  
  
"Yes," Severus said icily. "I am making a point to your father."  
  
The baby had stopped feeding. Celeste was now fastening the front of her gown. "May I hold her again?" Severus was surprised when he heard the words come out of his mouth, causing him to scowl. Celeste was too, but after a moment's hesitation she motioned for him to sit on the edge of the bed. Severus did so, uncomfortable at his proximity to her supine, half- dressed form. She placed the baby girl ever so gently in his arms, careful to rest her head against his forearm. Severus looked on.  
  
The baby was tiny without her wrapper. Her small fists roved randomly in the air for a moment before settling. Her eyes were closed now, Severus was disappointed to see. Celeste caught his frown.  
  
"You don't think she's beautiful?" Severus could tell he was wading into dangerous waters. New mothers were not to be crossed when it came to their offspring. He looked up at her to defend himself, but was silenced before he began. He hadn't noticed it before, although why he had not noticed in the eight years of their marriage escaped him, but the baby had taken her eyes from her mother. Limpid pools of blue stared at him from her face.  
  
"No, I do. Bellisima." Severus rose and lowered the baby into her crib, next to the bed. "Goodbye, Julia Hope." Severus paused a moment. "Arrivederla, Julieta Speranza."  
  
Severus left the room without looking back. Celeste stared after him in wonder.  
  
"Julieta Speranza..." She stroked her baby's cheek.  
  
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Speranza=Italian for Hope  
  
I wouldn't mind having a beta if anyone is interested. I need an extra pair of eyes to catch mistakes and I would like a second opinion on style, how I put things together, use of devices, etc. I would like someone who knows a little Italian to offer their services to me too, if that is possible. It would be greatly appreciated. I speak French and Spanish, but so far in the first five chapters I've had to pretend I know what I'm doing with the language. Italian is a bit different from French and Spanish, despite the fact that they are all Romance languages.  
  
So just a warning, if you are reading this fic and you speak Italian, even only a little bit, I will continue to butcher the language in this story until you surrender your help.  
  
REVIEW!  
  
Bellisima = very beautiful, most beautiful  
  
Arrivederla = goodbye 


	6. Wife

Celeste Snape lay in her canopied bed looking out at the blue sky through her window. The wind licked in gently, toying with her white lace curtains, and left. She could hear the level breathing of her daughter in her cradle next to her bed. Her black lashed eyes were screwed shut and her brow furrowed. She would be demanding a feeding soon.  
  
Celeste pulled herself up in her bed, taking much less effort to do so than she had that morning. She peeled back the pillowy coverings and tested the ground with her feet, as if making sure they floor would not give way. Slowly she stood and walked over to her wardrobe. Celeste sighed when she saw her reflection in the mirror. She looked a wreck, though probably not as bad as she had that morning before Healer Landon arrived. She wondered fleetingly what her husband must have thought of her untidy appearance.  
  
Reaching into her wardrobe she pulled out a light silk dressing gown and slipped it over her slim form. She tried to comb her hair out somewhat with her fingers, but the locks had become too intricately entangled to cooperate. Celeste gave up. She would have to have a proper bath after she had finished feeding her daughter. As if on cue a small whine came from the crib.  
  
A small baby, Healer Landon had said, but perfectly healthy. The Healer had even gone as far as to comment on how pretty a baby she was, which had given Celeste fierce pride. This woman delivered babies everyday, and she surely didn't pay such flattering compliments to all of them. After Landon had examined the baby she had given Celeste a brief checkup, which she had found a lot less embarrassing to do with a female Healer. Landon had given a dark look when Celeste had described the procedures and various charms Healer Feller had used. Celeste didn't think it was so much because Feller had done a poor job as it was because Healer Landon appeared to be a perfectionist in her art. However Healer Landon didn't refrain from critiquing Feller in front of his former patient, ranting about how a breech birth was a very serious thing and certain precautions had to be taken. Celeste didn't know whether she felt better or worse at having someone tell her that her former Healer was an incompetent.  
  
Celeste eased her child out of the crib and into her arms. It was still awkward to do, but she tried to follow the directions Healer Landon had given her, lifting the baby's legs slightly to slip one hand under the baby's back to cup its head. She expected it would become natural with time. She settled herself in the window seat to feed her daughter.  
  
As she gazed at the calm face of the infant pressed close against her, her thoughts drifted back to that morning's encounter. She had been wholly surprised to see her husband. Celeste had suspected that her father would ask him to come, but she honestly didn't believe he would. He had always kept his distance in the past. She had also been surprised to see him holding her daughter, ascending the stairs as if to look for her.  
  
Celeste wondered if she had been justified in her hostile behavior toward him. She answered her own question immediately in the affirmative. She knew what his father had been, what he was. She had seen the mark on his naked forearm the second time they had performed their marital duty, and every time since. He was the last person Celeste had wanted to see holding her child at that moment on the stairs.  
  
She resented everything about him. She despised his poorly groomed appearance, always looking like he had gone just a day too long without washing his hair. She hated how he always wore black, as if it was his way of proudly declaring his Death Eater past. She loathed the silky, sarcastic voice he used, although she had heard it directed to her only a few times. Not that she minded. Celeste was not overly eager to break the code of silence between them.  
  
But that morning had been very unexpected. She had seen him wipe her daughter's face gently. The gesture had disgusted her at the time; she did not want his hands anywhere near her baby. Celeste had been confused by his behavior after he returned her baby. While his draping of his cloak over her shoulders had been quite gentlemanly, the way in which he had gripped her arm behind the elbow as he led her down the hall had not. The conversation they had had, the longest one yet, had left her a bit bewildered.  
  
Some time after her husband had left the room she had heard shouting from downstairs. Her father was infamous for his temper, and it was clearly his voice that was gliding up the stairs to her room. However, she could not hear the other voice. Perhaps the other speaker was not even raising it. Celeste had wondered for a moment with whom her father could be arguing, when she remembered what Severus had said, that he would talk with her father. She was surprised; she had assumed that when he had left her room he was also leaving the house.  
  
The gist of the heated dispute downstairs, based on what Celeste could hear her father say, was that Severus was calling him on the fact that he had pocketed the money he saved by hiring a less expensive Healer for Celeste. More shouting ensued. Celeste couldn't be sure, but she thought that what her father said then was a response to her husband's threat to cut him off financially.  
  
She could do nothing but close her eyes miserably when she had interpreted the signs in her father's words. Despite all appearances—the beautiful estate, the extravagant decorations and furniture inside the manor, and the expensive lifestyle—the Nostrum family was on the rocks. Marriage with the Snape family had been her parents' way of securing a source of wealth for themselves. Although her father had haggled the dowry and complained about the Snape family not being elite enough for his daughter to marry into, he really had been desperate to secure the legal bond between them. He had not even waited for his daughter to be of legal age.  
  
It did not bode well that Severus was threatening to cut them off. Now that Aegerus was dead it was left to Severus to dole out the monthly allowance, and if he decided he didn't want to, there was nothing to force him to. Celeste did not want the money because she condoned the frivolous lifestyle of her parents, but rather because she knew that if Severus cut them off she would no longer be necessary to her father; she did not enjoy being a tool to him, but it was better than being of no value to him at all. She was not overconfident of what he would do with her once she had lost her value. Celeste also feared for her daughter. Her father would no doubt try to use her as a bargaining chip with Severus somehow to ensure the allowance continued.  
  
It was shortly after that that Healer Landon arrived. Severus had been true to his word about owling her immediately. The healer had brought with her a birth parchment as well. She recognized Feller's writing filling half of it. Landon had pulled out her own quill to finish it.  
  
"I was given strict orders by your husband to allow you, and not anyone else, to dictate the rest of the necessary information to me," the wiry, middle-aged witch had said. "What is the first name of the baby?"  
  
Celeste had of course started at this. So had her husband actually approved of the name she had chosen for the baby? Celeste was about to reply, 'Julia,' when she remembered what her husband had called the baby before he left. Quickly deciding as if on an impulse, but knowing that she was much more certain about her decision than that, she told the healer, "Speranza Julieta."  
  
When they were finished the healer had duplicated the birth parchment twice: one copy for Celeste, one for the Ministry's birth registry, and one to be kept by herself. At the last minute Celeste had asked the healer to make an extra copy to send to Severus. Celeste knew that the proper thing for her to do was to write to her husband to let him know that she was happy with the healer and tell him what the baby had been named, but if she could get out of writing him by having Healer Landon do it for her, then she would take that route.  
  
Celeste was also inexplicably embarrassed for naming the baby as she did. She liked the name, and that was why she had chosen it over the anglicized version, but she was afraid of her husband thinking that she had named the baby as she had to please him. Celeste didn't think she could bear for him to think that she was so weak as to change her mind to conform to her husband's most whimsical wish. It might set a poor precedent for their marriage.  
  
Sitting in her window seat overlooking the garden, Celeste could feel her daughter drift back to sleep in her arms. Rocking her gently against her shoulder, Celeste walked over to the cradle and set Speranza in it carefully.  
  
"Sweet dreams, Speranza."  
  
Sitting down on the edge of her bed, eyes on the contents of the cradle, Celeste let out a long sigh. 


	7. The Funeral

Attention all: I have found a beta. She also happens to have an Italian- speaking sister, so hooray!  
  
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The wake passed grimly and uneventfully, and then the funeral the following day in much the same manner. Severus scandalized his small extended family by reading a book during the service. His mother, however, had given up on reprimanding him; it seemed she took timid but vicarious satisfaction in infuriating her in-laws. They had always looked down on her.  
  
It was a very important book Severus was reading. He had rediscovered it in the library the night he came home. It was a general handbook on lycanthropy; it was nothing detailed or profound in intent, but reviewing the basics of that area revived his interest in a project he had begun in his internship at St. Mungo's. The project had been purely research oriented; Severus had withheld the hope that he would be able to produce something directly relevant from the data, but the research itself was in a largely uncharted area and therefore full of possibilities.  
  
Severus had been prevented from diving into his book before the service for a number of pressing reasons. For one, he had to make arrangements with Healer Landon to take on his wife and child, which he had done straight from the Nostrum manor. Secondly, Severus had felt compelled to have a... discussion with his father-in-law.  
  
Severus had been very surprised when he had discovered Celeste's mistreatment. He, although rejected by his own family, had assumed that for the most part the pureblood Death Eaters looked after their own. He had never seen domestic neglect from an outsider's perspective; it was strange to see it without a directly personal involvement in it. However, he did not feel wholly inclined to pity her.  
  
After Severus had finished threatening to cut off his father-in-law financially if he did not agree to play according to Severus' rules, Severus had returned home to face his mother's interrogation. While Severus was one part satisfied to see his mother's assertiveness reveal itself when it came to demanding information on her grandchild, he was also one part exasperated with being forced to go over the details of his encounter with his daughter—and more importantly, Celeste—one more time. As though the entire experience hadn't been replaying in his head non-stop since he left Celeste's room. As Severus gave his mother a cruelly brief account of the baby's appearance, he couldn't help but feel the phantom of her warm weight in his arms, and he scowled at himself.  
  
Severus sat in a plush chair that had been moved to the centre of the room along with many others to form the seating for the small assembly of people who attended the funeral. Being the son of the deceased he was required to sit at the very front, next to his mother. While she bowed her head over her handkerchief and cried, Severus bowed his head over his book, to the consternation of his relatives. Occasionally flicking his eyes over to his mother's pale, weeping form, he marveled at the woman's loyalty to a man who had never deserved her faith in him. One part of him dismissed her tears as being foolish; but another part of him was feeling something slightly more ambiguous than disdain.  
  
At his mother's insistence Severus was one of the pallbearers. Along with five other relatives, he levitated the coffin with his wand and floated it down the stone path that led from the back garden to the private cemetery. There, the body had been entered into the ground and the final rites of the funeral were spoken. Before casting the soil onto the dark wooden coffin, Severus's mother unexpectedly cast a bouquet of white flowers into the grave.  
  
Severus was a straggler as he made his way back to the house, where all his relatives would proceed to drink their most expensive wine and abuse the hospitality of the house elves. He was lost in sullen thought, mulling over the significance of the bouquet. The flowers were from their own garden. They were the only thing that grew in great abundance, so poor was the soil. Were the flowers just another indication of how mindlessly loyal his mother had always been to his father?  
  
It wasn't until he was walking through the trellis gate near the back entrance of the house that it occurred to him that the flowers indicated his mother was crying not for her husband, but for someone else entirely. 


	8. Return to Hogwarts

Severus picked at his breakfast of eggs and toast. He was not overly hungry and he had other matters on his mind; he was to return to Hogwarts today. He was not looking forward to it, but he did not wish to remain at his house either.  
  
As he flicked open the front page of the Daily Prophet a tawny owl flew in through the window. It alighted on the tall backing of the chair next to Severus and waited for its message to be taken from it. Severus undid the ties to her leg and the owl was off again.  
  
Sitting down at the table he contemplated the seal of the letter. He could feel his mother's eyes on him; he tore it open.  
  
Inside was a small parchment, a birth parchment, along with a brief letter from Healer Landon, detailing her bill and some information regarding the health of the mother and child. He cast it over to his mother once he was finished it.  
  
"She sounds quite taken with the baby, Severus. You didn't mention to me that she was beautiful."  
  
Severus snorted and returned to his toast. He allowed his eyes to rove over the birth parchment as he ate. He suddenly stopped mid-bite.  
  
"What is it, Severus?" His mother asked.  
  
Severus was reading the name on the birth parchment. What had that daft woman named their daughter?  
  
Constanza's hand reached tentatively forward and took the parchment. She examined it, a small smile playing at her lips.  
  
"Did you pick the name?" she asked.  
  
"No," he said. "She did. I didn't want Celeste's parents naming her," he added.  
  
"Oh." She thought a moment. "Any particular reason why she chose an Italian name?"  
  
Severus huffed impatiently, not really wanting to give an explanation.  
  
"I think it's lovely," she said.  
  
He scowled once more and returned to his paper.  
  
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The relief Severus felt upon leaving the manor dissipated rapidly once he returned to the school. He had the odd sensation of being forced into a confined space, although that did not make sense at all; Hogwarts was several times larger than his manor. Yet when he stepped into his private rooms, they seemed to have shrunk in his absence.  
  
He was called to the Headmaster's office within a short time of his arrival. Severus strode into the room to find Dumbledore sitting behind his desk sipping from a cup of tea.  
  
"Severus," Dumbledore greeted. "How is she?"  
  
"She is fine. Her mother as well," he said with a huff.  
  
Dumbledore considered him for a moment over the rims of his half-moon spectacles, a mildly amused expression playing at his lips. "I was asking after your mother, Severus." Severus flushed darkly. "But I am glad to hear that your wife and child are well." He waved Severus into a chair.  
  
"I called you here to discuss your new situation."  
  
Severus resisted the urge to sneer at the Headmaster; instead, he settled for a glare. He was not going to discuss babies or family life, of all things, with Dumbledore. The man had no right to interfere with a situation Severus was currently trying to make the best of by himself. He braced himself for the patronizing lecture he was expecting to spurt forth from the Headmaster's lips, asserting simplistic views of family values.  
  
But Dumbledore surprised Severus.  
  
"In light of the new arrangements, it is more than your due to take a leave from your post. Your bereavement leave alone would excuse you for the final three weeks of your classes here, but you are also entitled to paternity leave. If you wish to exploit either of these options, you may do so."  
  
Severus could not believe Dumbledore was offering him time off from work.  
  
Dumbledore leaned in then, with a twinkle in his eye. "It would also give you time to work out arrangements with your new family. The house must feel fairly empty now, especially to your mother."  
  
Severus fairly bristled when he realized the unexpected twist the conversation had taken. "No, Headmaster, I don't believe a leave of absence will be necessary."  
  
Dumbledore considered him with a look that was not in any way resigned, infuriating Severus even more.  
  
"Very well, then. But you will be returning to your manor for the summer?"  
  
Severus nearly snarled that no, he would not, when he realized that he couldn't allow the headmaster to pique him into saying things that he would regret later. He had in fact already made plans to return to stay with his mother over the summer break. The manor had a decent laboratory in the basement, and he intended to make use of it over the summer break to continue his research of the properties of aconite.  
  
"Yes. That is my plan."  
  
"Very well then." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, taking a long sip from his tea.  
  
Eventually Severus felt compelled to say something.  
  
"Who did you find to substitute for my classes while I was away?"  
  
Considering the ceiling, Dumbledore replied, "Remus Lupin. He took to the position quite naturally, actually."  
  
Severus started upon hearing this name. He had forgotten about the man, hadn't thought about him in years; the gears in his head immediately began to whir.  
  
Perhaps Dumbledore did not like the odd gleam he saw in Severus's eyes just then, because he promptly changed the subject.  
  
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Severus rose from his desk, neck aching and eyes gritty with fatigue. From his tall window he could see the full moon glinting off the shard of lake in the distance. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood very still.  
  
He thought of his mother, alone in the large, empty manor with nobody to help her keep the silence at bay except two aging house elves and a number of grotesque portraits. When he had been younger, he had always imagined that the sole obstacle between his mother and her happiness was her husband. However now that he was gone, she was no freer and no happier than before. He realized now that it was not what Constanza had in her life that had made her miserable; it was what she had been lacking all those years. Now that Aegerus was gone, she was still lacking those things she needed, just as much as before.  
  
Severus's last thoughts as he readied himself for bed were of how eager she had been to hear news of her granddaughter. 


	9. Landon's Letter

Hey readers. I would like to formally apologize for how short my chapters are. I'm afraid that what goes into a chapter is basically whatever I write in one sitting (one sitting is usually several hours). I would make my chapters longer, but then updates would be farther in between, and I would also probably get really sick of rereading my chapters. I have enough trouble betaing other people's work, and I only have to read their stuff twice. Editing my own work involves me rereading it twenty times, sending it to my beta, making the changes she suggests, and then reading it another three times. And so, if my chapters were longer, I would probably just give up in despair and stop writing this story, and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you?  
  
Fortunately, this chapter is way long. Like, major long. For me, anyways.  
  
Please read my one-shot, "Bystander."  
  
X X X  
  
The last weeks of the term passed and soon Severus found himself marking the final exams for the nine Potions classes that were not taking either N.E.W.T.s or O.W.L.s. His quill scratched deftly across the exam parchments, punishing errors with a neat but contemptuous 'X' and not making any mark at all for correct answers. It was easy to tell at a glance, judging by the quantity of emerald green ink on the parchment, how the student had scored.  
  
A polite but assertive knock interrupted his marking. Before he could tell the visitor to enter Dumbledore had already opened the door and moved to stand before Severus. He had a complacent smile on his aged face and his eyes twinkled in a satisfied sort of way.  
  
"Severus," he greeted.  
  
Severus was trying hard to overcome his hostile feelings of having had his personal area invaded. The Headmaster usually summoned him to his office when he wanted a word; he seemed imposingly out of place in Severus's small dungeon office.  
  
"Headmaster," Severus said.  
  
Dumbledore continued to twinkle a moment longer as he glanced around Severus's dim office.  
  
"Severus," he said at last. "Another year finished." His tone was tranquilly satisfied. Severus was beginning to lose his patience.  
  
"Yes, well, some of still have work to do," Severus replied.  
  
Dumbledore ignored Severus's tone and continued. "You will be returning home for the summer?"  
  
Severus narrowed his eyes but nodded.  
  
"Your mother will be pleased to have you for the summer, I am certain." Dumbledore paused again.  
  
"Headmaster, is there something in specific you wished to tell me or did you merely come down here for one of your routine chats?"  
  
Again Dumbledore ignored Severus's tone, but his cheerful countenance became subdued.  
  
"Severus, I received a letter by owl this morning from my good friend Esther Landon. You knew her through your brief internship at St. Mungo's, I believe?"  
  
Severus replied in the affirmative, his attention grudgingly snared.  
  
"She was requesting my expertise as a member of the Wizemgamot. Apparently she has an infant under her care, a pretty little girl, whose family seems to be putting some very questionable traditions into practice." Dumbledore paused. "Esther was inquiring whether betrothals between infants was still legal under Magical Law. I regret to say, they still are so long as they as there is no official documentation for them. The bill that was passed several years ago had a loophole in it, allowing for informal betrothals, unrecognized in the eye of the law, to exist."  
  
Severus was growing impatient with Dumbledore's rambling, wondering where it was going. He knew the protocol of betrothal and arranged marriage. He had been through it first hand. A cold, sneaking suspicion was taking root, but he decided to ignore until he knew for certain that it was justified.  
  
"Esther went on in her letter to express her concern at the mother's treatment by her parents. She seemed worried that the mother's wishes regarding her child were not being respected. She was also perplexed at the father's lack of involvement in the betrothal arrangements. My friend says she cannot be certain, but she suspects that the father has little or no knowledge of what is transpiring."  
  
Severus sat very still, unsure how he was meant to interpret what Dumbledore had said. His natural inclination was to give credit to his suspicions of a moment ago, but he held back, waiting for a more explicit hint from Dumbledore.  
  
"Considering the circumstances, Severus, if you wish to leave the school as soon as you are finished your marking, as opposed to waiting until the term is officially over, you may do so. I am certain that Remus Lupin will be more than willing to fill in for you again." Dumbledore stood. "I must return to my office now and write a letter to Esther, assuring her that the child's father will take care of the situation." With that, Dumbledore glided out of the office, leaving behind a perturbed Potions Master with his marking.  
  
X X X  
  
The next morning saw Severus in a terrible mood. He sent a letter to his mother, who had recently returned from a visit to her home village in Italy, explaining that he would be arriving home early and to expect him that afternoon. He hurriedly packed his books, potions equipment, and personal effects and left the trunks in his office for the Hogwarts house elves to deliver to his manor. All of this taken care of, he wrapped himself in a thick black cloak, despite the oppressive heat of the June morning, and walked to the gates of the grounds to Disapparate.  
  
He arrived on the steps of the Nostrum manor, knowing it to be poor form to Apparate unannounced into the sitting room, no matter how furious he was. He pounded the doorknocker against its brass plate and waited for one of the house elves to arrive.  
  
Quickly, but not soon enough for Severus, a familiar-looking elf answered the door.  
  
"Tibby takes Master Snape to—"  
  
Severus pushed past the nervous elf and strode into the foyer.  
  
"Master Snape, sir, please let Tibby talks to his master—"  
  
"Where is Nostrum?" Severus said in a quiet but icy voice.  
  
"He is not here."  
  
Severus started at the sound of a woman's voice. He looked up. Standing at the top of the stairs was Celeste. The sight of her perched on the landing reminded him of their last meeting.  
  
"Madam," Severus said, inclining his head somewhat.  
  
If Celeste was thrown off by the formality of the address she did not show it.  
  
"What can I do for you?" she said.  
  
"I would like to have a word with you father."  
  
"I am afraid that he is visiting a friend, Fiscus Weir. My mother too," she said.  
  
"Then," Severus said, "perhaps I could have a word with you?" He strode across the hall and opened the double doors to the drawing room, gesturing for her to lead the way through. Celeste hesitated a moment before slowly descending, trailing the banister with one hand. Severus noted with detached approval that she had more color in her face than the last time they had met. Landon was doing her job.  
  
Celeste led the way into the drawing room and took a seat. Severus remained standing.  
  
"My employer received a rather interesting letter from his friend Esther Landon yesterday."  
  
Celeste's face gave nothing away. Her cool gaze met his unflinchingly.  
  
"Tell me, Fiscus Weir and his wife have a small son, do they not? Two, three years old?"  
  
Celeste bowed her head, nodding. Her defiant attitude of a moment ago was now replaced with a defeated air.  
  
"What exactly is the basis of the friendship between your parents and the Weirs, madam?" Severus asked.  
  
Celeste let out a stifled sigh and let her forehead rest in one hand.  
  
"Well?" Severus snapped.  
  
"My father wishes to betroth Speranza to Mr. Weir's son."  
  
"And why was my opinion on the matter not sought out?" Severus said.  
  
"Obviously, husband, my father did not wish for you to know of his plans until they were fully carried out," Celeste's voice was sarcastic and hard. "My father would not have resorted to betrothing her like this if it hadn't been for your threats to cut us off, let me assure you."  
  
Severus could feel his blood begin to boil. "So that is why he is doing this? He plans to use her the same way he used you?"  
  
Celeste looked up at her husband venomously. "Did you want to be the one to pick out her husband for her?"  
  
Severus stared in disbelief at his wife. "So that I could ensure her unending happiness for the rest of her life, you mean?" he retorted.  
  
Celeste did not reply. Severus took a seat opposite of her.  
  
"Where is she now?"  
  
"In her nursery. She's sleeping."  
  
The space between them was silent as they considered each other, calculatingly, distrustfully. The bell clock on the mantle ticked loudly.  
  
Suddenly a house elf set a tray of tea on the table, seemingly appearing from nowhere. He vanished just as quickly.  
  
"May I offer you some tea?" Celeste's voice was terse with forced politeness.  
  
"Yes," Severus said.  
  
Celeste lifted the teapot to pour and, as she did so, her sleeve fell back to reveal a mottled purple bruise on the underside of her forearm where she could not see that it was showing. The bruise webbed out on one side, indicating it had been made by a hand. Severus rubbed the bridge of his nose with exasperation.  
  
"What is it?" Celeste asked.  
  
"When will your parents be home?"  
  
"Within the hour," she said.  
  
"Go upstairs and pack your things."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
Severus looked at her levelly for a moment, before reaching out and taking hold of her wrist. He pushed back her sleeve and indicated her bruise. "I'm not leaving my daughter in this sort of arrangement. You can pack your things and come with me and Speranza, or you can stay here."  
  
Celeste stared at Severus in surprise; surprise then turned into angry defensiveness. "You think you can take her away from me like that, or that you can order me around like your servant?"  
  
Severus rose from his chair. "You have a choice, Celeste, between taking my orders or your father's orders." He stared down at Celeste, challengingly. When she made no motion to do his bidding, he walked to the door and said, "Very well. Let your father know that I dropped by."  
  
Celeste caught up with him on the stairs. "I'll pack my things," she said. She led him to her room where she began pulling things out of drawers and tossing them on her bed. She summoned a house elf with the snapping of her fingers. "Tibby, fetch me my trunks from the attic." Severus watched on as she haphazardly deposited her robes and belongings into an odd assortment of luggage.  
  
"We are in no rush," he said.  
  
Celeste glanced at him. "But they could be back any minute."  
  
"It does not matter. They can't stop me from taking my family with me," he said.  
  
She did not slacken her pace, however. "Put my books in that trunk there. It has a permanent featherlight charm on it." Severus complied, but at a much more leisurely pace than Celeste. He allowed himself to stop every now and then to peruse a book's contents. He was surprised to find that they were all rather interesting, not the vapid novels he knew her mother and many other of the women he despised read. She even had a set of books on magical illnesses that he thought he would not mind reading.  
  
It did not take long for Celeste and Severus to fill three trunks with her things, the third trunk containing the books having a bottomless charm on it in addition to the featherlight charm.  
  
"Do you not want to take any of the furniture with you?" Severus asked.  
  
"You do have furniture in your house, I presume," she replied a little sarcastically.  
  
"Very well." With a wave of his wand he cast a hovering charm on the trunks and moved them into the hall. He then hovered an empty suitcase over to the nursery adjacent to Celeste's room.  
  
The nursery was papered a subdued shade of cream, the afternoon sunlight trickling in past the lace curtains making it seem golden. The cradle was against one wall, draped in rich swathes of white lace. Severus groaned inwardly at the Nostrum women's seeming fixation with white lace. He hoped Celeste would not try to bring that decorating style to his house. Celeste was bent over the cradle murmuring gently to the baby. In one deft move Speranza was in Celeste's arms without having been woken up. Celeste adjusted her wrapper and placed her in a basket resting on a small nightstand.  
  
"Her clothing and diapers are in the top drawer over there," she said. "Her baby things are in the second drawer. Can you put them in the suitcase?"  
  
Severus complied. Within minutes everything was packed and they were ready to leave. Celeste carried the basket and suitcase down the curving staircase as Severus hovered the three trunks in front of her. As they reached the foyer they heard the sound of the Floo flaring up in the next room. Celeste froze. Imperarus Nostrum strode into the foyer, closely followed by his wife.  
  
"He says only ten thousand Galleons, but I think—"Nostrum stopped short at the sight before him. "Severus," he said. "What do you think you are doing?"  
  
"I am claiming my wife and child," Severus said coolly.  
  
"Nonsense, you miserable little—Celeste, get back to your room this instant!" Nostrum's face was turning an ugly puce color. Celeste quailed visibly. For all her boldness in dealing with her husband she was a coward to her father's anger.  
  
Severus stepped in front of Celeste, more to prevent her from moving towards the stairs than to defend her from her father. "She and the baby will be staying with me and my mother. You may not come to visit. Celeste," he said over his shoulder, "after you." He held the door open for Celeste and guided her through with his free hand. He then lifted the trunks into the air once more with a wave of his wand and left his infuriated in-laws gaping after them.  
  
X X X  
  
Again, please read my one-shot, "Bystander."  
  
...and review, of course. Or I won't update. Ever.  
  
PS Thank you, Huskerinexile, for reviewing. Everyone else, you got your thank you's in email form. 


	10. A Change of Setting

Speranza it is. The results of the poll were overwhelming (not to mention one reader's dog and my cat both liked the name) and I have decided to rename the baby. If you want, you can refer back to chapter whatever to see how the naming scene is slightly but insignificantly different.  
  
My apologies to Blaze for changing the name, but I think it was necessary. Perhaps if you knew how it was pronounced (assuming for a moment that you don't) you would like it better: Spay-rahn-sa, with a trilled "r" and emphasis on the second syllable. It really is quite a musical name, and I think the sibilance suits her family background. However, for your sake I will keep Julieta as her middle name.  
  
Thank you poohdog for the suggestion of Dahlia as a middle name. I was actually going to use it until I found out that a white Dahlia looks like a severed poodle tail and that the flower itself was actually "named after botanist A. Dahl, who discovered it." (How unimaginative can you get in naming a flower?) However, I will remember that name and perhaps many moons from now, when the image of a tail-less yappy dog has stopped prancing about in my head, I will use it in a different fanfic.  
  
By the way, thank you all so much for all the positive reviews. Not that a critical one would be rejected or anything, but it's nice to get any sort of feedback whatsoever. I'm sorry that I haven't been very good about responding to my reviewers this past week, but just so you know, if you want a "sneak preview" of the next chapter just write "SP Requested" in your review and I will send you one, provided you include your email address. How's that for incentive to review?  
  
A big juicy thanks to my beta too, because without her I would have taken Celeste's character in a direction that nobody would have liked. I wanted to make her slowly reveal herself to be quite like Severus, but with Liburna's help I realized it would be better to have a contrasting foil. So in this chapter my beta cut out the parts that did damage to Celeste and kept her the likeable little trooper that she is.  
  
Enjoy, my little readers. This chapter is nearly as long as the first four chapters combined. So rejoice!  
  
PS---Just a warning...the chapter runs through, then it runs through again from a different point of view. Just had to make a note of that, even though I didn't want to, because even my beta was confused.  
  
X X X  
  
Reaching the gravel driveway at the bottom of the steps, Severus cast about for a means to get to his manor. Disapparating with so much luggage was difficult at best, nor was it possible to do so with a small child. Eventually he waved his wand arm in the air before him, as a last resort.  
  
A sudden bang sounded, startling Celeste and causing the baby to cry. She gave Severus a quizzical look at the sight of the odd triple-decker bus before them, to which he coolly raised his eyebrows.  
  
"It seems to me to be the only way," he said. He led the way on the bus, paying the driver some silver from his bag. He guided Celeste to the rear, leaving the luggage to the driver to deal with.  
  
Celeste sat beside him, basket in lap. Severus was grateful that she had the crying baby to fuss over, negating the need for conversation to fill the silence. He reflected that she, too, was probably grateful for the same thing. Eventually the lanky bus driver and his grubby-skinned son finished packing the trunks away and the bus began to move. The countryside flashed past, fence posts and the odd sign jumping to avoid the bus, which plowed through the distance separating it from its destination without following any Muggle roads. It did not take more than half and hour to reach the Snape manor.  
  
Celeste glanced out the window at the manor as she lowered her baby into the basket. Severus could see her already stiff form freeze. She sat primly and unmovingly, and eventually Severus was persuaded to look at his manor from the eyes of one who had never seen it before. The sight was not welcoming.  
  
He tapped her elbow, causing her to drag her eyes from the manor. "Shall we be getting off?" he asked.  
  
She nodded dumbly and picked up the basket, following his form down the narrow aisle. He offered his hand as she stepped off the bus but she did not take it.  
  
"Stan, boy, say what I taught you," the bus driver was saying to his son.  
  
The boy tipped his chin up with ridiculous pride and said to Severus and Celeste, "Thank you for bringing your bus'ness to our op'ration. If you ever need your transportational needs fulfilled be sure to call on the Knight Bus!" The boy's father proudly wiped an eye and the two of them with their bus disappeared with a bang. Severus rolled his eyes and began stalking up the steps to the front door.  
  
His mother opened the door almost as soon as he had knocked on it. "Severus," she greeted. Her skin was golden from her visit to the Mediterranean and all in all she looked far better than the last time Severus had seen her. "The Hogwarts house elves delivered your things earlier and your room is ready for you. I have some things from Italia that I want to show you." Her voice was not as muted as it had been in during Severus' last visit, and she allowed herself to smile shyly as she spoke. Moving in the doorway to let Severus pass she caught sight of Celeste and suddenly stopped in midstep. "Severus?" she intoned.  
  
Severus turned to follow his mother's line of vision and found that Celeste had not followed him up the steps but was instead still standing on the driveway, clutching her basket to her. She looked rather like someone who had been deposited in unknown territory by surprise, which Severus reflected wasn't too far off from actual situation.  
  
"Celeste and the baby will be staying with us, Mother. Unless she wishes to leave," he said, taking Celeste's behavior into consideration. "But the baby will remain here either way." He raised his wand and floated Celeste's trunks into the manor and followed them towards the stairs. "How long will it take for the house elves to prepare a room for her?"  
  
"I'll summon one for you," Constanza breathed. She turned and looked once more at Celeste, who was still rooted to her spot below the steps. "Why isn't she coming in?"  
  
Severus merely snorted and continued his ascension of the stairs. He opted to summon an elf himself and gave it instructions to move Celeste's things into the room overlooking the oak grove.  
  
"Bitsy is sorry, sir, but Mistress have moved her things into that room," the old house elf replied.  
  
Severus considered this development. "Move my wife's things into my mother's old room then. You are to treat my wife with the same respect and servitude that you show my mother and myself." Finished, Severus strode down the hallway; he paused at the top of the steps. Below, his mother had coaxed Celeste inside and was talking to her in timid but encouraging tones. Severus raised his voice to be heard. "Mother, I've put Celeste in your old room. She can make use of the nursery. Perhaps you could show her around." He purposely avoided eyed contact with Celeste as he spoke. Feeling that he had done his bit, Severus turned on his heel and made his way to his rooms to unpack his own trunks.  
  
X X X  
  
Aegerus Snape's study had been nearly emptied, along with his rooms, during Severus's previous stay in a purge-like cleansing of the house of the deceased man's personal possessions. Almost everything had been either thrown out, packed away in the attic, or given to distant relatives at the funeral. However, Severus took the small library at the opposite end of the second floor as his study instead. Some rooms in the house were not yet ready to be rehabilitated.  
  
Severus stacked his last book on the shelves as the dinner gong rang. He charmed his empty book trunk to travel to the attic where it would remain for the summer and made his way to the dinner room. He had not seen his wife and mother since that morning, choosing to have lunch and tea by himself as he unpacked. As he walked into the room his mother looked up and smiled uncertainly. Celeste, who had changed robes since her arrival, did not acknowledge Severus's arrival. Severus felt he could care less, and sat down between the two of them at the head of the table.  
  
Dinner arrived and Constanza strove valiantly to break the silence with conversation. She gave up after several failed attempts.  
  
When dinner was finished Severus leaned back in his chair and spoke to Celeste directly. "Do your rooms meet to your satisfaction?" he inquired blandly.  
  
"Yes," Celeste said to the empty patch of table where her plate had been.  
  
"Severus, I think Celeste is accustomed to less... austere surroundings," Constanza interjected in a small voice. Severus saw Celeste look up at him as Constanza said this.  
  
Severus raised an eyebrow. "You may do as you wish with your rooms and decorate them however you like. If there is anything in any of the other rooms, any furniture or objects, that you would like to move into your own room you may do so. The same applies to the rest of the house, however my rooms, the large library, and the laboratory are off limits." Severus rose from the table. "I will take my leave of you both. Good night." Severus walked through the doors of the dining room and made his way to the stairs.  
  
"Wait," Severus heard a voice say. He stopped on the third step and turned around to see that his wife had followed him. She was looking at him calculatingly, the reserve of her manner of a moment ago gone. "I can do as I please with the house?" she said. Severus quirked a brow and nodded.  
  
"I have no personal attachment to cobwebs as a décor statement," he said. "Although you should probably consult my mother about whatever changes you wish to proceed with." He turned to mount the steps but was halted by Celeste once more.  
  
"I'm not finished yet." Celeste paused as if thinking about how to say what was coming next. "What if I want the walls repapered? Will you pay for someone to do that for me?" Celeste was obviously struggling to display the boldness she normally treated her husband with when she was in her own territory, but was finding it difficult, being out of her element in this strange house with two people she did not know well at all.  
  
"Yes," Severus said. "Is that all?"  
  
Celeste thought for a moment. "Yes. If there is anything else I will talk to you about it as it comes up."  
  
Severus nodded and climbed the stairs without repeating his good nights.  
  
X X X  
  
As the bus disappeared with a bang Celeste felt a clammy hand of dread grip her stomach. She regretted acting so rashly now, packing her things and running off on the spur of the moment with a man whom she hardly knew, let alone trusted. While at the time leaving her father and mother had seemed like the best stroke of luck possible, she had forgotten to consider the other side of it. Her husband was a Death Eater; although he had never been convicted, she knew from the mark she had seen. She had also heard stories about his father, and the hushedly-told stories, skeletal with missing elements, of the home life in the Snape manor. How much of Aegerus Snape lived on in his son? Celeste instinctively clutched her baby's basket closer to her.  
  
Severus was talking to a woman—his mother—when she finally dragged her eyes from the morbidly grim façade of the manor. She recognized the small, dark-haired woman from the wedding ceremony eight years before. The woman was staring at Celeste in a worried manner.  
  
With a wave of his wand Severus ushered Celeste's luggage into the black doorway. Celeste felt a panicky feeling surge up as she realized she would soon have to follow her luggage inside. Reluctantly, at the dark- haired woman's beck, she climbed the stone steps with leaden feet and stepped into the grimacing mouth of the doorway.  
  
Shadows gathered menacingly in the high arched ceiling of the entrance hall. The marble floor was cold underfoot and the doors creaked ominously as they shut behind her. Her husband was nowhere in sight, but the dark woman was timidly watching the contents of the basket Celeste was holding from her place by the doors a few feet away. After a moment of what appeared to be an inner battle of sorts, the woman stepped forward and spoke to Celeste.  
  
"I am Severus's mother. I am certain you know who I am, but I don't believe we have ever been properly introduced." Her voice was melodious but subdued and hesitant. Celeste detected an accent of sorts. A story about how Aegerus Snape had brought his bride to England from someplace on the continent floated in her head for a moment.  
  
"You may call me Constanza," the woman continued.  
  
At that instant Severus reappeared. He disappeared just as quickly after having informed Constanza where Celeste was to sleep, and issuing instructions to show her around the house. Underneath her unease Celeste was able to muster a sense of anger at the ease with which he had cast her off, leaving her for his mother to deal with. Constanza's soft voice and a light touch on her elbow urged her towards the stairs in an encouraging manner.  
  
The stairs curved and the hall twisted until they came to the doors of Celeste's room. The oak doors opened into a large, dark room. A heavy four-post bed was centered against one side of the chamber, and rich tapestries in dark colors draped the paneled walls. Three tall, arched windows looked out over the grim ocean horizon, where discontent grey water boiled and crashed against the sharp rocks of the shore.  
  
"This used to be my room," Constanza said quietly in a tone Celeste couldn't quite place. As Celeste moved forward into the room Constanza held back, in the doorway.  
  
Celeste saw that her trunks had been moved into the room and a house elf was lurking in the corner just behind one of them. When he had been spotted he hobbled forward and said, "Master is told Bitsy to follow your orders, Mistress."  
  
Celeste thought a moment, then, feeling the tiring weight in her arms, said, "Bitsy, please locate a cradle, if there is one in this house."  
  
Bitsy didn't reply but instead led Celeste with a wave of his spidery hand toward a door on the left wall, beyond the bed. Through the door was a small room with a cradle up against the window, which was open and allowed the smell of the ocean to leak in. Celeste sighed in relief and, placing the basket on a convenient table, scooped Speranza into her arms and lowered her into the mahogany cradle.  
  
A fluttering of breath next to her shoulder surprised her and she turned to see that Constanza had followed her soundlessly into the nursery. The small woman was seemingly transfixed by the sight of her granddaughter, and edged closer to delicately rest her hands on the rim of the cradle. "Bellisima," she cooed softly. Italian, Celeste thought. Aegerus had brought his bride back from Italy.  
  
"That's what Severus said," Celeste said, not so much to be conversational as to try to draw out some stray fact or detail about anything—her husband, Constanza, anything whatsoever. She felt dangerously naïve about her surroundings.  
  
"Did he, now?" Constanza said. She gently stroked Speranza's tiny head and a sad expression flickered across her face. She stepped back and said, "Perhaps we should unpack your things, Celeste." Constanza pronounced her name as though it had three syllables, an influence of her Italian mother tongue. She said it, "Say-lay-stay," with a stress on the second syllable. It made her reconsider a name that she had never really liked. The way Constanza said it gave the name rhythm.  
  
It took an hour to unpack her things, but by the time they stopped to have lunch Celeste was ready to give up on putting things away, leaving them to find their own niches by themselves over time, so exhausted was she. For lunch they descended a set of stairs in the rear of the house and ate in the kitchen. Celeste was surprised at the lack of formality, but at Constanza's look of insecurity over serving her guest thus, Celeste immediately forced an expression of approval on her face. Constanza seemed to relax somewhat and set about serving a meal that was quite different from anything Celeste had ever eaten before.  
  
Throughout the meal Celeste kept wondering if Severus would join them, but everytime the door opened or closed it was only to allow the passage of one of the two house elves. She wondered if Severus usually ate his meals alone or if he was purposely avoiding her. Constanza seemed to read her thoughts, because she said, "Severus isn't trying to be rude by not joining us. He is busy readying himself for his research. He has only two months before he has to start work again." Her tone was almost apologetic.  
  
"Research?" Celeste asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
Celeste waited for Constanza to say something about what the research focused on but information was not forthcoming. She did not press the matter.  
  
In the silence that ensued Celeste examined her company's small, dark face. Celeste could see that much of Constanza's face had been repeated in Severus's, although her features were far more delicate and more harmoniously combined. She wondered how much of Constanza and Severus's faces would appear in Speranza's.  
  
Her musings were eventually interrupted, though. "Come now," Constanza said after finishing her coffee. "Let's finish setting your room in order."  
  
They did not work long, however. Constanza soon noticed that Celeste was slowing down and suggested that she take a nap before supper. Celeste agreed, and was soon left alone in room with the instructions to summon a house elf should she need anything. As soon as the doors closed behind the slight woman Celeste let out a long sigh and dropped onto the edge of her bed. With her eyes closed, she weighed out her situation.  
  
In one stroke she had solved the problem her father posed, both to herself and her daughter, by pushing him out of the picture completely; the same went for her mother. She had also managed to protect her daughter from the prospect of an arranged marriage—at least for the time being. While Severus had seemed vehemently angered at having his daughter betrothed, she couldn't yet be entirely certain whether that was because he had been offended at being excluded from the plans or at the choice of groom, or if he had been genuinely opposed to an arranged marriage for his daughter. She prayed it was the latter, however unlikely it seemed.  
  
However, in one stroke too she had created several new problems. While she was out from underneath her father's thumb, she was now in the power of a man she did not yet know how to predict, interpret, or, more importantly should the need arise, placate. His mother's timid nature was not a good sign as it indicated a life of meekness meant to avoid the sting of the back of a man's hand. In the past, whenever her husband had visited her on their anniversaries, she had always put on a bold and somewhat disrespectful air for his benefit. She was not afraid of him when she was in her own court and she wanted him aware of it. She wanted him to know that she would not allow herself to be manipulated and used by him the way some pureblood husbands did to their wives. However, now the situation was much different and she had to think how best to avoid crossing her husband, if not for her own sake then for Speranza's.  
  
X X X  
  
Changed and feeling somewhat fresher, Celeste made her way to the dining room from whence the dinner gong was ringing. She made a few false moves, poking her head into several double doors, before finding the right pair. In one room she saw an odd, discolored rectangle of wallpaper over which her eyes lingered before the gong rang again and she shut the doors, ready to test the next set.  
  
When she found the right room she sat across from her mother-in-law and bowed her head demurely over her place set, copying a pose she had seen Constanza make earlier at lunch. It did not take long for Severus to appear, and Celeste noticed that he seemed slightly hesitant about taking the seat at the head of table. She reminded herself that his father had not been dead for very long; he probably was not yet accustomed to being the head of the household. His demonstration of weakness was strangely reassuring.  
  
Dinner progressed quietly and grimly. Constanza made several attempts to start conversation, revealing to Celeste that she put some degree of submissiveness on the shelf when around her son. Perhaps she did not have to worry about Severus after all? However, she felt bad at not responding to Constanza's attempt to lighten the mood.  
  
Dinner finally ended and Celeste had the distinct impression that her husband had not looked at her once since he had entered the room, which was peculiar; but he surprised her when he suddenly leaned back in his highbacked chair and spoke directly to her.  
  
"Do your rooms meet to your satisfaction?"  
  
Thrown off by his question she gave a false answer, "Yes." She knew she couldn't be honest and say that she found them depressingly dark and grim.  
  
"Severus, I think Celeste is accustomed to less... austere surroundings," Constanza interjected in a small voice. Celeste glanced up in surprise at her mother-in-law.  
  
"You may do as you wish with your rooms and decorate them however you like," her husband continued. "If there is anything in any of the other rooms, any furniture or objects, that you would like to move into your own room you may do so. The same applies to the rest of the house, however my rooms, the large library, and the laboratory are off limits." Severus rose from the table. "I will take my leave of you both. Good night." Severus walked through the doors of the dining room. Emboldened by his comparatively generous offer, Celeste rose from the table herself and followed him out of the room, leaving behind a surprised Constanza.  
  
"Wait," she called. Severus stopped on the third step and turned around to look at her. "I can do as I please with the house?" she asked. Severus quirked a brow and nodded.  
  
"I have no personal attachment to cobwebs as a décor statement," he said. "Although you should probably consult my mother about whatever changes you wish to proceed with." He turned to mount the steps but Celeste stopped him once more.  
  
"I'm not finished yet." Celeste paused to gauge her husband's response to the forwardness of that statement. He face remained neutral, so she continued, "What if I want the walls repapered? Will you pay for someone to do that for me?" Celeste tried to inject some sauciness into her tone for good measure, as it seemed that her husband did not expect her to act like his mother after all. She felt she may as well continue her old tactic of forced boldness.  
  
"Yes," Severus said. "Is that all?"  
  
Celeste thought for a moment. "Yes. If there is anything else I will talk to you about it as it comes up." Severus turned and mounted the stairs without bothering to repeat his good nights. Celeste did not mind though, and when Constanza crept down the hallway a few minutes later she climbed the stairs with her.  
  
"Severus never liked this house," Constanza finally said when they reached the top step. Celeste wondered if Constanza had heard part of the conversation she had had with Severus. It appeared she had when she said, "I never have either. It will be...nice, to make some changes."  
  
They reached Celeste's door and they bade each other good night. Celeste did not close her door right away, instead watching Constanza's small form glide down the hallway like a ghost in the dark until it disappeared behind a door at the end of the hallway.  
  
X X X  
  
So...I hope you all remember what Aconite is (it's mentioned in the first book.)  
  
As for the names...well, one of my other reviewers impressed me with her personal research to find their meanings, but I will give them out for free now:  
  
Severus: you should all know this one (shame on you if you don't): latin for "severe"  
  
Albus: latin for "white"  
  
Dumbledore: Old English (I think) for "bumblebee"  
  
Celeste: same root as the word celestial, meaning "heavenly". I named her thus because of her blue eyes.  
  
Julieta: Doesn't mean anything in particular. I decided to hang onto it as her middle name because one of my readers insisted that she liked it.  
  
Speranza: Italian version of Hope.  
  
Constanza: Means "constancy". I think she represents something unchanging to Severus, someone who will always be there for him, whether he wants to get mushy thinking about it or not.  
  
Aegerus: Okay, I basically tore apart my latin dictionary trying to find something sinister sounding, not-too-obvious, and with a really good meaning. It came down to about six finalists, including the Latin words for poison, evil, bastard, among others. I chose a word I thought sounded intimidating without being too posed, and changed it around to make a name. Then, I forgot the meaning. But I think it meant sickness, or something diseased and perverted. Which makes sense twofold: he dies of a long-term illness, and he is also a sort of rotting ulcer in Severus's life when he is still alive.  
  
Nostrum: Thought it sounded cool. It harkened back to Nostradamus, that dude who predicted the end of the world. He was some sort of alchemist/seer from the middleages.  
  
Imperarus: comes from the Latin verb for "to command". I thought it was a good name for a control freak. You now know that Imperio, the unforgivable mentioned in book four, means "I command".  
  
Healer Feller: "I do not like thee Doctor Fell, the reason why I cannot tell, but this I know and know full well, I do not like thee Doctor Fell." Just a little piece of my childhood for you.  
  
Landon: Good old boring name.  
  
Weir: From that creepy poem by Poe.  
  
And now...my personal favorite...  
  
Fiscus: Literally, "moneybag".  
  
Remember, "SP Requested"!! 


	11. Diagon Alley

I'm so sorry it took me so long to update!! I sent this off to my beta about a week ago, but then it turned out that she never got the message. But because she was able to beta it with her usual speed it was ready for today. So please, enjoy!!  
  
And thank you all for reviewing!  
  
X X X  
  
The next day Severus spent most of the morning planning out the plots for the garden he would need that summer to support his research. As it was, the garden was an unruly jungle of weeds and thistles interrupted by odd patches of untended daisies. There may once have been a beautiful garden, if the network of stone pathways and the odd decorative but headless garden statue was any indication, but Aegerus had been apathetic to gardens and had allowed this one to go to waste.  
  
By noon Severus was achy and sweaty from uprooting the unwanted plants domineering his plots. He had searched in vain for a book of simple gardening spells in both libraries but had to resort to non-magical methods to clear the garden in the end. He was nearly finished when his mother appeared in the kitchen door leading out to the garden. She rested the side of her face against the doorframe and watched sadly as Severus pulled up still more of the plants. Severus saw her forlornness, and looked guiltily down at the limp torn flowers in his hands.  
  
Half an hour more and Severus had reclaimed the kitchen plots and most of the former decorative ones. He did not bother with the rest, which were not in an ideal location for growing aconite. He tossed down the dragon hide gloves he had been wearing and made his way to the house with the intention of cleaning up before lunch when he walked past a small pile of the white daisies he had pulled up from one of the beds. He hesitated, then bent over to pick up five of the undamaged ones, neatly broke off the bottom part of the stems, and continued on into the house.  
  
His mother was no longer in the kitchen so he climbed the stairs to seek her out in her room. Before he reached her end of the hall, however, he heard a piercing wail erupt from a door to his left. He gently inched the door open and peered in. Celeste was nowhere in sight. Wondering at how she could leave the baby unattended like this when the child obviously needed something he stepped into the room. Quashing feelings that he shouldn't be there, on the grounds that it was his house after all, he closed the final few feet between him and the cradle and peered in. Inside was the wailing baby, looking quite like a pink, writhing flobberworm with vestigial arms and legs sprouting out of it. Even as he thought this Severus realized how unfair it was. He had been a particularly ugly child himself.  
  
He was about to go looking for Celeste when the baby stopped crying just as suddenly as she had at their first meeting. She lay on her back, blue eyes now open and staring up at Severus, her mouth slightly open. A familiar trickle of goo dribbled down her chin and Severus hesitated before wrinkling his nose and wiping it off with the corner of her blanket. Babies truly were revolting.  
  
As he looked down at her Severus realized how much she had grown; he hadn't had a proper look at her since that day at the Nostrum manor several weeks ago. She was still quite small, but she must have gained a few pounds. Her head was no longer completely hairless and it appeared that she would have black hair like himself.  
  
Severus remembered the white flowers in his hands and used his wand to conjure a length of string. He tied the daisies into a bundle and then dangled them from the canopy bar of the cradle, so that the flowers were face down to the baby. She contemplated them a moment, mouth still open, before shifting her gaze back to Severus, whom she apparently found more interesting.  
  
"Severus."  
  
Severus turned to see that Celeste had entered the room through the door separating the nursery from her bedroom. She had an unreadable expression on her face and Severus strove to match it with an equally ambiguous one. They considered each other a moment, waiting for the other to make the first move.  
  
"You brought her flowers?" Celeste asked.  
  
There was no explicit sarcasm in her tone, so Severus had no excuse to reply with it himself. "Yes. Casualties of my summer research plans."  
  
"Ah," Celeste said. She looked mildly confused but Severus did not bother to offer an explanation.  
  
X X X  
  
Severus was in the drawing room before lunch when his mother came in and announced to him that he had a visitor. Perplexed, Severus consented to have the visitor brought in to see him. A few minutes later Dumbledore twinkled his way into the grim room.  
  
"Severus," he greeted warmly.  
  
"Headmaster," Severus said with an inconvenienced air. Dumbledore had never been to the isolated and protected Snape manor before, and he rather wondered how he had managed to get in.  
  
Dumbledore helped himself to a highbacked armchair and said in an amicable tone, "I just dropped by for a chat."  
  
Severus huffed and put down his book. "If it had been anything important, you only had to summon—" Severus was interrupted by the abrupt opening of the doors to the room. Celeste wandered in and then stopped in her tracks when she realized she was not alone.  
  
"Ah, and would this lovely young woman be your wife, Severus?" Dumbledore twinkled merrily. Severus closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Dumbledore really should have been in Slytherin. His capacity for orchestrating the most extravagant of ploys was truly remarkable.  
  
"Albus, this is my wife, Celeste. Celeste, this is my employer and the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore," Severus said.  
  
"I am very pleased to meet you my dear," Dumbledore said, rising and holding out a hand to greet Celeste with.  
  
Celeste responded with a subdued 'likewise' and waited for a cue from her husband to leave. Severus was about to suggest to her that she go have lunch when Dumbledore spoke.  
  
"Please join us, my dear. I only came by for a sociable visit."  
  
Severus groaned inwardly as he saw the set-up. Dumbledore was going to pretend that he thought they made a good couple or something, or encourage them to be in each other's presence by forcing this shared conversation on them. Perhaps he was even going to try to bring the baby into this somehow.  
  
A stilted conversation ensued, although one would never have been able to tell judging by Dumbledore's relaxed and jovial attitude. Severus dourly avoided responding to Dumbledore's conversation, leaving it to Celeste to do so. She incidentally seemed quite charmed by the old headmaster. Perhaps she had been expecting any guest of Severus's to be quite different. Sure enough, the conversation quickly turned to the baby and Celeste left the room to bring her downstairs to show to the headmaster.  
  
"She is a very beautiful woman, Severus," Dumbledore said, peering over his half moon spectacles at him. Severus snorted in response.  
  
Celeste returned with Speranza a moment later. She proudly carried the baby over to Dumbledore and held her before him.  
  
"What a beautiful child," Dumbledore asserted. He took the baby in his arms and rocked her, looking in Severus's opinion quite like a bearded, doddering old wet nurse. "And what did you call her?"  
  
"Speranza Julieta Snape," Celeste said.  
  
"Italian? That would have been your idea, would it not, Severus?" Dumbledore asked. Severus scowled.  
  
Dumbledore rubbed Severus the wrong way for a half hour more before a house elf poked his long nose into the room and announced that lunch was ready to be served. Dumbledore immediately stood and proclaimed that he had an important meeting to be at. He shook Celeste's hand in a very genteel manner, twinkling over the rims of his half-moon spectacles, and then turned to Severus.  
  
"Here is your bank waiver for the last term," he said reaching into his periwinkle robes. Severus took it without a word.  
  
He noticed Celeste give him a furtive look.  
  
X X X  
  
Severus rolled the food around in his mouth boredly and wondered if he should announce the errands he would be running later. It didn't necessarily concern either of the women sitting at the table with him but it was the polite thing to do. He took a swig of coffee from his cup and said in a disinterested voice, "I will be going to Diagon Alley after lunch."  
  
Constanza nodded and continued eating but Celeste put down her fork and looked at him shrewdly. Under her gaze Severus was thinking to himself that he rather preferred the more subdued personality he had seen at the dinner table the day before. She was beginning to be a bit tiresome.  
  
"What is it?" he snapped peevishly.  
  
"I need some things for the baby," she said.  
  
"You'll have to do your own shopping." The thought of being seen by people he knew carrying a bag full of pastel-coloured baby products was nauseating.  
  
"I don't have any money to do so with."  
  
Severus was about to spit out a retort but what she had said instead made him think of something and he smiled rather oddly to himself. After a moment or two he remembered where he was and answered Celeste. "You may come with me then."  
  
X X X  
  
Diagon Alley was as busy as always. Courier owls flitted from shop to shop and children with Fortescue's ice cream smeared on their faces were dragged along by the hand by their harried-looking parents. Celeste walked briskly alongside Severus, and he was grateful at least that she was tall, making it easy for her to keep up with him.  
  
"I have to go to Gringott's first," Severus said without turning to her.  
  
Within a few minutes the gates of the bank came into view and they passed through them and entered the stately building. Severus walked up to one of the gleaming marble counters and handed over the slip that Dumbledore had given him. The goblin looked at it narrowly for a moment before nodding curtly and asking Severus where he wanted to deposit it. Severus turned to Celeste.  
  
"Do you want me to give your parents their usual allowance?" he asked in a snide tone.  
  
"What?" Celeste asked, surprised.  
  
"I was asking you if, considering your past treatment at their hands, you wanted me to continue paying them as per the agreements your father and mine drew up when we were married."  
  
Celeste looked dumbstruck for a moment before saying in a small voice that she rather thought he should give her parents the money. She then focused her attention on something at the far end of the room, as though to guiltily mask the lack of conviction in her decision.  
  
Severus cocked an eyebrow but signed the slip the goblin had passed him. He filled in the appropriate amount and set it aside.  
  
"How much do you need for the baby's things?"  
  
"I'm not sure."  
  
"Then I'll give you the usual amount." Severus reached forward and took the second slip, filling it out also. He directed the goblin to put the small remainder of his pay into his own vault. He set the stubby quill back in its well and looked at Celeste, only to find that she was staring at him with a confused expression on her face.  
  
"The usual amount?" she asked.  
  
"Is that not enough for your extravagant tastes, madam?"  
  
Celeste furrowed her brow and reached for the slip with her name on it. "Vault 416: Celeste Snape?" She looked at Severus with a questioning expression. "I don't have a vault here."  
  
"Silly me," Severus said. "That's my other wife's vault."  
  
Celeste frowned and looked at him. "I have never had my own vault."  
  
Severus considered her, looking down his nose at her perplexed face. "I sent you the key for your vault three years ago when I opened it for you, when I started my job at Hogwarts. I have been putting in a portion of my salary every term ever since."  
  
"I never received a key from you," she said. She stared at the amount on the slip for a moment before placing it back down on the counter and reaching for the one with her father's name on it. "On second thought..." she trailed off, ripping the piece of paper to shreds.  
  
Severus smiled darkly in spite of himself. He reached for Celeste's slip and tore it neatly in half. "I should probably open a new account for you."  
  
X X X  
  
They left the bank, moneybags heavy with coins, and headed back down Diagon Alley. "I need to buy some seeds," Severus said.  
  
"To replenish the garden you decimated this morning?" Celeste asked.  
  
"For my summer research, yes." They walked in silence for a while before Celeste asked, "Do you usually take on a research project every summer?"  
  
"No," Severus said. "Usually I stay at Hogwarts, where there is little to do but restock the matron's potions store and revise my teaching plan."  
  
"Oh," Celeste said. After another pause she ventured another question. "Does the staff normally stay at Hogwarts?"  
  
"No. Usually it only myself and Filch, the caretaker."  
  
"Sounds...uneventful."  
  
"It is. But Filch does have some rather intriguing notions about corporal punishment. He waxes poetic about them after a drink or two."  
  
Severus led the way to the Floo registry, where he was planning to reconnect his manor to the network. Taking the Knight Bus everywhere was not only expensive but tedious as well. Once inside he filled out the necessary paperwork as Celeste gazed out the window into the street.  
  
"To Leed's, then?" Celeste asked when Severus was finished. Leed's Seeds was a small plant nursery at the south end of Diagon Alley.  
  
Severus shook his head. "I know a place on Knockturn Alley that is cheaper." Severus did not catch Celeste's expression as he pushed the door open.  
  
The winding Alley came to a narrow junction and Severus led the way down a dim, tight street. He often felt Celeste lag behind and periodically had to stop while she caught up to him. At last they came to Poisoneberry's Plants, a grimy, narrow little storefront with a few scraggly plants in the dusty window.  
  
"How on earth do they manage to grow plants here?" Celeste whispered.  
  
"They don't. They specialize in other things." The plants were a cover, but because the proprietors made their money in other ways, the plants and seeds they did sell were often marked down quite a bit lower than in other places.  
  
The tin bell clanged as they entered the premises. After a moment or two a thin grubbly man with an unattractive oily sheen on his balding pate creeped out of the dark back room. "Severus Snape," he whispered by way of greeting.  
  
"Hello, Benjamin," Severus said.  
  
"And what can I do for you today, sir," Benjamin asked, rubbing his dirty hands together with a grin.  
  
"I am here to buy some seeds."  
  
"Oh." Benjamin's face fell. It was obviously not his area of preference. "Well, then."  
  
"I need some aconite seeds," Severus said.  
  
Benjamin set about fumbling through the tiny drawers covering the walls behind the till. "We have no aconite, sir." Benjamin turned and smiled grotesquely, seemingly thinking that this detail would spur Severus away from the boring matter of plants and instead into the area of business he enjoyed.  
  
"Hmm...how about wolfsbane, Benjamin?"  
  
Benjamin scowled in unconcealed disappointment as he rifled through the drawers once more. After a moment he turned around holding a linen sack. "Found them."  
  
"Idiot," Severus muttered under his breath. "They're the same plant."  
  
Benjamin stumped over to the archaic scale and began setting it up. Severus told him how much he wanted and when Benjamin had inexpertly weighed out the correct amount of seeds and tied them up in a cloth sack Severus handed over a few sickles. Severus stashed the little sack away in his cloak and was about to bid his goodbyes when he noticed Benjamin was looking past him, licking his thin lips.  
  
Hairs raising themselves on the nape of Severus's neck, he turned to follow Benjamin's line of vision and found that his suspicions were confirmed. He flushed angrily and strode towards Celeste, took her by the wrist, and led her from the store.  
  
It was a few blocks before the foul taste in Severus's mouth left him. Celeste was struggling to keep up with him. They were about to turn onto Diagon Alley so that Celeste could get the things she needed when a cloaked figure stepped gracefully into their path.  
  
"Lucius Malfoy," Severus greeted.  
  
"Severus Snape. It certainly has been a while." Lucius smiled a little too pleasantly. "What brings you to Knockturn Alley?"  
  
"Only an errand, Lucius," Severus replied.  
  
"Ah." Lucius's grey eyes lazily dragged themselves over Celeste's face, and lower. "And who is this you've met up with? I thought you didn't sneak around behind your wife's back, Severus. Not that I disapprove of your taste."  
  
Severus flushed darkly. "Celeste, this is Lucius Malfoy, an old...associate. Lucius, this is my wife, Celeste."  
  
Lucius coolly raised an eyebrow, not at all apologetic. "I see. I do see." His eyes roved a moment longer before snapping back to Severus's face. "I was wondering if we could talk sometime, Severus."  
  
"Is that so."  
  
"An interesting proposition has come my way and I think you might find it just as intriguing. Perhaps you would like to come by my manor sometime next week? I will have the Lestranges over," Lucius said.  
  
"I will have to see. I am planning on being quite busy this summer."  
  
"Not too busy, if you have time enough to let your wife drag you out on errands with her."  
  
Severus huffed impatiently. It seemed the only way to get Lucius off his back for the time being was to convince him he was going to get what he wanted. "Very well, then. I will send an owl before I come."  
  
Lucius smiled broadly. "I would like that very much, Severus." With that, Lucius Malfoy sauntered down the grim alley away from Severus and Celeste. Severus rubbed the bridge of his nose in sheer exasperation and turned to continue towards Diagon Alley when he noticed that Celeste was not following him. He stopped in his tracks and turned around.  
  
"Celeste?"  
  
Celeste forced herself to follow.  
  
X X X  
  
There was a man who lived in Leeds  
  
He filled his garden full of seeds  
  
And as the seeds began to grow  
  
It was a like a garden filled with snow  
  
And as the snow began to melt  
  
It was like a ship without a belt  
  
And as that ship began to sail  
  
It was like a bird without a tail  
  
And as that bird began to soar  
  
It was like a lion at my door  
  
And as my door began to crack  
  
It was like a penknife in my back  
  
And as my back began to bleed  
  
I was dead, dead, dead indeed.  
  
--By Unknown  
  
Someone complained that there's no action in this story. I hope you don't all feel this way. I mean, what do you think the whole wolfsbane thing is about? Or the timeframe? I mean, don't you think the timeframe is important? Because it is. Just wait.  
  
So...Three guys hit on Celeste in one chapter. Ugh. (Well, Dumbledore doesn't count, I guess. But he did say she was beautiful.) Benjamin the sex god is a present for my beta. I told her so in my email to her when I sent her the chapters and apparently she thought Ben was going to be hot or something, as she naturally read the email before reading the attachment. Because of, you know, the Young Ben, whom we both had monstrous crushes on two years ago...never mind. Inside story. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed his cameo appearance. I think it would be funny to have him show up in every one of my fics (not my one-shots because they're too short for gratuitous details).  
  
Talking about gratuitous appearances, I guess Dumbledore's visit had that written all over it. Ah, well. Dumbledore's like...uh...seasoning. Add a little here and a little there.  
  
Anyhoo...THANK YOU to all my reviewers!! You all make my day.  
  
If YOU want to make my day, then you can review too. 


	12. The Research Subject

Fifty Farging Reviews!! Woot!!! I cant tell you all how tickled I am!  
  
Now that I have lots of time on my hands I have been finding it very difficult to make myself write. I think I'd rather just lie around on my bed all day, staring at the ceiling and eating my boogers. What else are summer vacations for? But I don't eat my boogers. Honestly.  
  
I hope you enjoy this chapter. We get to see a little Remus Lupin, and there's also some glorious sexual tension. Although the two aren't mixed.  
  
My beta didn't get to do this chapter. She was very busy, being in the emergency ward with an allergic reaction to a wasp sting and all.  
  
X X X  
  
Celeste was sitting at the kitchen table, face in one hand, as Constanza rhythmically kneaded some dough. She appreciated her time in the kitchen with Constanza, who was quiet and did not pose the threat of interruption to her thoughts. The smells and sounds of cooking were soothing, and the sight of Constanza's slim, floured fingers chopping, tearing, wiping, and stirring was transfixing.  
  
She was replaying the events of yesterday afternoon in her head; the revelation at Gringott's, the implications of Severus's business with that plant shop, and most of all, the encounter with Lucius Malfoy. It was this last event that puzzled and worried her.  
  
Celeste's eyes turned back to Constanza's face, entreating a distraction. "Constanza, will you teach me how to cook?"  
  
Constanza raised her eyebrows but said nothing. She kneaded a moment longer, then beckoned for Celeste to stand by her at her side of the table. Celeste complied.  
  
"You knead it like so," she said, showing how to roll the flab of dough while working it with her fingers at the same time. "And when it begins to stick to the table you sprinkle on some more flour. But not too much, or it will get duro, tough." She finished her demonstration and stepped back.  
  
Celeste did a quick cleaning charm on her hands, and then, tentatively, rested them on the white lump of dough. Its warmth surprised her. She pushed her fingers in gently and realized that she would have to be more forceful with it; she pushed harder, then began flipping and rolling it the way she had seen Constanza do. The work was oddly satisfying, the dough sticky and soft at the same time. In a few minutes her hands were floury white like her teacher's.  
  
"Good," Constanza said. "Now we'll put it back in the bowl and let it rise some more." Constanza tossed a clean cotton towel over the earthenware bowl and set it by the hearth.  
  
"Is there anything else to be done?"  
  
Constanza replied to this by setting a pot of olives from the back pantry onto the table. "Help me slice these."  
  
Celeste slowly pitted and sliced three olives in the time it took Constanza to do the same to a dozen. After a moment of watching Constanza's deft hands manipulate her knife with perfect ease Celeste was beginning to feel decidedly inferior. Sighing, she popped an olive in her mouth and could not repress the face she made.  
  
"It is a strong flavor, I know," Constanza said kindly. She looked out the window. "It doesn't appeal to everyone. You have to learn to appreciate it."  
  
Celeste sighed and looked out the window too. Severus was in the garden surveying his plots.  
  
In the corner Speranza stirred in her basket. Constanza wiped her hands on a cloth and went to check on the baby while Celeste continued to struggle with her knife. "Silenzio, Fiorella," she cooed, kissing the soles of the baby's feet, who gurgled and went back to sleep.  
  
"Severus took her some flowers the other day," Celeste said.  
  
Constanza nodded, eyes still on the baby. "Did he tie the flowers above the cradle?"  
  
"Yes," Celeste said, watching Constanza closely now.  
  
Constanza merely nodded again. "He used to do that, a long time ago."  
  
X X X  
  
Severus was rather pleased. He had had more than enough seeds to fill the plots, and the next moon was in precisely two weeks, providing more than enough time for the aconite to grow to maturity with the help of some growth potions. Besides the aconite he had also planted some seeds for flowering perennials. He had bought these as an afterthought as he was waiting for Celeste to make her own purchases. He thought his mother might appreciate them.  
  
The sun was getting lower in the sky and he knew supper would soon be ready, so he peeled off his gloves and tossed them into a nearby wheelbarrow. He passed through the kitchen upon entering the house but found it empty. He assumed that wherever his mother was, she was probably with Celeste; they seemed to have taken to each other.  
  
He began climbing the stairs to get to his room so that he could change before supper when he met Celeste, who was going down.  
  
"Why do I always seem to run into you as you are descending the stairs?" Severus asked.  
  
"Pardon?'  
  
"You are always at the top of the stairs when I am at the bottom."  
  
"Oh." Celeste shrugged and looked around her. "It gives me a view of the room."  
  
"And makes you seem more imposing to whomever is at the bottom of the stairs, does it not?"  
  
"Perhaps," she said, tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear in a bid for casualness and stepping around Severus on the stairs. Severus turned to watch her descend.  
  
Before she reached the bottom of the stairs he spoke again.  
  
"I noticed a book in your collection on common cyclical illnesses. May I borrow it?"  
  
Surprised, Celeste considered him for a moment and nodded.  
  
"I'll fetch it from you later, then." Severus turned to ascend the stairs.  
  
In his room Severus briskly changed into some clean robes. The dinner gong rang and he made his way to the dining room, where his mother and Celeste were already seated. He sat in silence while they talked, thinking about a letter that he would have to send out after supper. He had been thinking for several weeks about this letter, and how to word it; it had to be very persuasive, he thought, to make Remus Lupin want to see him again.  
  
Remus Lupin, the last of that childish gang—the Marauders, as Potter and Black used to call themselves—had never exhibited the outright antagonism towards him that his friends had; but Severus was still unsure as to exactly how cooperative he would be. However, the comment Celeste had made the other day, about the money, had suddenly given him insight into a new means of persuasion that he had not thought of before—a means of persuasion that would have a lot of influence for a person who had difficulty finding work because of his condition.  
  
As for how, exactly, to word the letter, he was not sure. His instinct called for brevity and succinctness, but perhaps it would be best not to fully reveal his intentions until Lupin had been convinced to see him in person. Then again, would Lupin even consider seeing him if he did not know what it was about? Of all the people Severus had known, Lupin had always been one of the most difficult to interpret. His Gryffindor foolhardiness had been easy to identify in the old school days, as well as his loyalty to his friends, but there was an element of shrewdness and wisdom to his character that had always been difficult to anticipate in action.  
  
When dinner came to a close Severus dismissed himself from the table and climbed the stairs to his study. There, he sat at his desk and wrote a brief letter, in a steady black script, to Remus Lupin. It made no mention of his real reasons for summoning his presence; it merely requested to see him at his manor to discuss a matter of business. In fact, it was so open- ended a letter that Lupin would most likely assume that Severus wanted to discuss what happened during the last week of school that he had missed. This worked well for Severus, who knew that duty would oblige Lupin to come.  
  
He folded the letter and tied it to the leg of his owl, Vesuvius, and opened the window for the bird to fly through. He watched thoughtfully as the owl arced through the air and headed north.  
  
X X X  
  
At around nine o'clock Severus entered the main library to search for a book that he needed for his research. He had been positive that he had moved it to his study, but perhaps one of the house elves had found it lying on his desk and had removed it back to the library for him. He made a note to himself to proscribe the house elves from entering his study.  
  
He pushed back the heavy double doors and made for the tall shelf on the far side of the room. He did not notice that a chair near the fireplace was occupied.  
  
"Evening, Severus."  
  
Severus started. Celeste was sitting in an armchair with Speranza lying against her arm. A heavy book was resting in her lap.  
  
Severus gave a curt nod and turned back to the shelf, somewhat disconcerted at having been snuck up upon. He could not find the book he was looking for, however. He moved over to another shelf to check there. As he crossed the floor he glanced over his shoulder once more to check on Celeste; she had immersed herself in her book.  
  
"What are you reading?" he inquired.  
  
Celeste glanced up, and Severus noted the way the firelight flickered against her hair and skin. "It is a treatise on the properties of some common herbs in relation to the cycle of the moon."  
  
Already in the process of scanning the spines of the books, Severus stepped back. "Ah," he said. She was reading the book he had been searching for.  
  
"Yes?" she asked.  
  
"Nothing. Perhaps when you are finished with that book you could let me have it?" Severus's words were generous but his tone indicated he wanted the book promptly.  
  
Celeste looked at him again. "Do you need it for you research, then?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
She considered him for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what exactly it is that you're researching?"  
  
"I am just continuing some research on aconite that I started when I was doing my internship at St. Mungo's," he said peevishly.  
  
"You never finished there, did you?"  
  
Severus shook his head.  
  
"It's just as well. I don't think I could ever picture you as a Healer myself."  
  
"I didn't want to be a Healer. I was interested in how potions reacted with the human body. That is all."  
  
"And how does aconite react with the human body?" she asked.  
  
"It is not its reaction with the human body that concerns me. It is its reaction with a non-human body that I find intriguing."  
  
Celeste gave him an openly aggravated and bewildered look. "Do you have many friends?"  
  
Severus frowned at her remark. He could not anticipate the point she was evidently trying to make.  
  
"Besides Lucius Malfoy, that is."  
  
"I would not consider Lucius Malfoy to be one of my nearest and dearest, by any means," Severus huffed.  
  
"He seemed to know you fairly intimately when he talked to you the other day."  
  
"No one knows me intimately."  
  
"That's what I thought." Celeste was quiet again. "What sort of "proposition" do you think he had in mind?"  
  
"How should I know," Severus snapped.  
  
"He has a small son, does he not? He must be nearly four years old now."  
  
"I doubt that that is his reason for wanting to see me. The Malfoys are somewhat more modern than either of our families."  
  
Celeste appeared to be somewhat eased at this response. She shut the book in her lap with one hand and held it out for Severus to take.  
  
"It's late. I should put Speranza to bed."  
  
Severus looked down at the small girl, asleep in her mother's arms with her mouth slightly open. Celeste rose, hoisting the baby up against her shoulder, and walked from the room. Severus banked the fire with a wave of his wand and followed her out.  
  
In the hallway outside her room Celeste noticed that Severus had followed her instead of heading the opposite way down the hall to his own room. She turned to face him, silently asking him to explain himself, but he merely cocked one eyebrow and opened her bedroom door for her. She entered and he followed her in, shutting the door behind them.  
  
Celeste didn't see a way out. She was afraid of asking him to leave outright, in case he was angered. She backed up towards the door to the nursery. "I need to put her to bed," she said.  
  
"Very well. I will wait." Severus moved to sit on a chair near the bed. Celeste nodded reluctantly and went through the door to the nursery.  
  
Celeste took her time preparing Speranza for bed, and eventually lowered her into her cradle. The daisies hanging from the canopy bar were beginning to wilt so she pulled them down and tossed them out the open window before shutting it against the rain that was coming in with the dark storm clouds on the horizon. When there really was nothing else for her to do she went back into her room, where Severus was waiting for her.  
  
"Well?" Severus said expectantly when Celeste appeared. Celeste looked at him uncertainly.  
  
"I'll need a few minutes," she said.  
  
"What for?" Severus asked, rising and walking towards her. Celeste backed up as he drew closer. "It shouldn't take long." Severus then walked past her and approached the tall bookcase against the wall. "I think it had a brown spine."  
  
"Pardon?" Celeste said.  
  
"The book I'm borrowing from you," Severus said. "Well? Are you going to help me find it?"  
  
"Oh," Celeste breathed. "Yes. The book."  
  
Severus narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you think I wanted?"  
  
Celeste shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and pulled a book from the shelf. "Nothing. Here's the book."  
  
Severus accepted the book but stared at her intently for a moment longer. He walked to the door and opened it, but before stepping through it he turned to face her once more.  
  
"Good night," he said in an impatient tone. The door snapped shut behind him.  
  
X X X  
  
The following day, a house elf approached Constanza and Celeste as they were in the sitting room with Speranza.  
  
"Mistresses, someone is here to see Master Snape."  
  
"Show him in here, Bitsy. I will go to fetch Severus." Constanza stood and left the room, leaving it to Celeste to entertain the visitor.  
  
A minute later the house elf returned with the guest following close behind. He was a young man, approximately her husband's age, but he had deep lines of concern etched into his kind face.  
  
"Mister Remus Lupin," Bitsy announced before leaving again.  
  
Celeste stood to offer the man her hand. He smiled and took it. "Celeste Snape," she said. "Please have a seat."  
  
He complied and sat down opposite of her. "I was not aware that Severus had married," he said conversationally.  
  
"We've been married several years now."  
  
The conversation seemed to die there, as Lupin looked awkwardly about the grim room, but then he noticed the basket at Celeste's feet and smiled.  
  
"Yours?" he asked.  
  
"Yes," Celeste said. Remus ducked down for a closer look at the baby. To oblige him, Celeste lifted her out of her basket and held her out for him to take.  
  
"You want me to hold her?" Lupin asked, surprised.  
  
"She likes being held. You don't have to if you don't want to."  
  
Lupin held out his arms to take the baby. "It's been years since I've held one," he said. "The last baby I held...he was my friend's son." Lupin seemed to grow sad at this, but Speranza's happy gurgling soon made him smile once more.  
  
"Her name's Speranza," Celeste said.  
  
"Speranza Snape," Remus chuckled. "It's oddly fitting for Severus's daughter."  
  
At that moment, Severus walked in. He took in the scene before him with a cool gaze.  
  
"Lupin," he nodded.  
  
"Severus," Remus smiled hesitantly. "I received your owl. You said you wanted to discuss something with me? I could only assume it had to do with my substituting your classes." Remus shifted the baby nervously in his arms.  
  
Severus didn't say anything for a moment, but merely looked at Lupin and the baby in his arms, a slightly amused expression playing at his lips. He turned to Celeste. "You did realize when you let him hold the baby that he is a werewolf, didn't you, Celeste?"  
  
Celeste swallowed in surprise and stared at Lupin. "Is that true?" she asked.  
  
Turning a little white, Lupin gave her a dismayed look before stepping back to her to return her baby. "I'm sorry," he said. "I assumed you knew."  
  
Celeste took Speranza back in her arms.  
  
"If you'll step up to my study I will tell you what this is all about," Severus said, gesturing toward the door.  
  
Lupin nodded and silently moved for the door. Celeste stared at the two of them, the gears in her head whirring.  
  
"Wait," she said. "Wait."  
  
Severus and Lupin turned to face her.  
  
"Is this what your research is all about?" she asked. "First the wolfsbane, now him...I've figured it out, haven't I?" she demanded triumphantly.  
  
Severus considered her, still somewhat amused; Lupin was looking downright confused. He glanced mistrustfully between Celeste and Severus.  
  
"Well done, madam," he said, sarcastically. "I can't keep anything hidden from your keen mind." With a swish of his robes he led Lupin from the room.  
  
X X X  
  
Little Tigger—He he. I know what you mean. Last summer I was practically nocturnal because of my fanfiction habit.  
  
Penfanna—What sort of allusions are you talking about?  
  
Floria—So, can you guess what the research is about now?  
  
Nebula Zirconia—About the aconite: You're probably perfectly correct, but in the first Harry Potter book Snape uses the three terms aconite, monkshood, and wolfsbane interchangeably. Who am I to argue with canon? I am merely a mortal, unlike J.K. I would have stuck to using wolfsbane or monkshood (it took me hours of brain-wracking to remember what the third term was) but I thought that people would be able to guess too easily what was going to happen with the research if they could easily identify the plant. As for Celeste's naïveté: I often have trouble with her myself. The whole character development thing is befuddling me. Snape is easy because the reader already knows what he's supposed to be like, but the others...I picture Celeste as being book-smart, but not necessarily people- smart; kind, but quick to make judgments; brave, but wary and at times afraid for herself; idealistic, but at the same time resigned to certain inevitable facts—her marriage for instance. She's only twenty-two, grew up in a controlled and protected environment without much freedom to have a social life, and hasn't ever needed to manage anything before she had her baby; so I think it's okay for her to be a little naïve. Of course, I hope it's not an annoying naïveté. And I hope she grows a bit during the course of the story.  
  
Everyone Else—Of course I'm continuing with the story!! I just hope it finishes itself soon. I want to start a new one.  
  
If you enjoyed it, please review! Or I won't ever update and you'll be left hanging. For the rest of eternity. The end.  
  
Keep you eyes peeled for my next one-shot. It should be posted within the week, I think. 


	13. The Wolfsbane Potion

Hey all. Sorry it took so long to update, I really am. It was like this giant dead albatross, all stiff with rigor mortis and everything, hanging around my neck. But you see, my beta was in BC, I was in the emergency with a life-threatening eye infection, and my poor cat had his tail removed. So what was I to do in the face of so much opposition? Certainly not find time to write.

I'm also sorry about the "False Update". I edited a few chapters on August 6 and so it appeared that I had added a new chapter when I hadn't.

I also made a teensy weensy change or two here and there in the chapters I edited. The problem with writing everything as I go is that I often corner myself, and as a result I had to go back to chapters one and two to take out about ten words total, but ten very critical words. They dealt with the Lestranges already being in prison (my bad, because they haven't wound up there yet) and the Longbottom's being in St. Mungo's (obviously if the Lestranges haven't done their thing yet, the Longbottom's are still fine and dandy). You guys probably didn't even remember my mentioning these details in the first place, but now you know. And now my plot is saved. Hurrah!

XXX

With the door shut behind them in the dim study, Severus tossed Lupin a leather pouch of a dried herb. "Can you tell me what that is?"

"Er," Lupin said, awkwardly catching the pouch with both hands. His eyes had been resting on the pickled something that was floating in a greenish fluid on his host's desk. He dubiously peered into the pouch. "Monkshood?"

"Yes. Monkshood. Also known as aconite, wolfsbane, friar's cap, chariot of Venus." Severus sat down at his desk and steepled his fingers. "Its medicinal value is uncertain and during my work at St. Mungo's I was investigating its properties, both magical and chemical. Sit down," he said, gesturing toward a chair on the other side of his desk. Lupin hesitantly complied.

"I thought you wanted to talk about school."

"Talk about school, during a nice sociable visit?"

Lupin did not appear to have heard this last remark. He had discovered the Pickled Something's brothers and sisters perched, in jars of different sizes, on the bookshelf behind Severus, some of them being used to prop up the books. Severus casually turned to admire his collection.

"I do like to collect ornaments," he said nonchalantly.

Lupin snapped out of his reverie. "Right," Lupin said. "What's this about if it's not about school?"

Severus did not say anything for many seconds while he considered the man before him. "You were readily available when the need arose for you to take my place," he commented.

"So?"

"You were not otherwise busy? It was easy for you to come at the drop of a hat?"

Lupin chewed his tongue. "I haven't been very busy these days."

"No, and your clothes are as shabby as ever. How long have you been out of work?"

Lupin, under his ever-present mask of politeness, was beginning to bristle at this assault on his pride. He swallowed slowly, and spoke. "My lack of a job isn't for want of trying."

"Naturally," Severus said with an insincere wave of his hand.

Remus narrowed his eyes at Severus. After a good minute of staring he abruptly stood up and straightened his robes. "I will take my leave—"

"Sit down," Severus hissed harshly. Lupin complied and Severus leaned over his desk to stare into his face. "I despise you as much as ever, you arrogant Gryffindor swot, but right now I believe we each have something to offer the other." Severus reached into one of the drawers and withdrew a bank slip. He slid it across the dark surface of his desk face down and allowed Lupin to take it. Lupin's eyebrows rose as he read it.

"You are offering me this?" Lupin asked mistrustfully. He still held the note between index and thumb, hesitant to claim it in a more possessive hold, as he appeared to wage war with himself. With a sigh, the battle was won and lost. His victorious half asked, "What is it...that you need me to do?"

"I'm not asking you to murder anyone, Lupin, so stop looking like that," Severus snapped. "I am designing a potion, with that herb you are holding there, and I need a test subject."

Lupin looked at Severus with a mixture of shock and offence. "I may be going through a rough patch, but I don't think that entitles you to imply that I'm that desperate. Use test rats like the others use, and keep you money," he said, tossing down the piece of paper.

"I would, were it not for the apalling scarcity of rats suffering from lycanthropy."

Remus became very quiet and still. "What's this potion all about, Snape?"

"I am hoping to find a remedy for your condition. Not a cure, but a remedy."

Remus looked at him very gravely. "Then I accept."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Very well."

XXX

Celeste was rifling through her books, looking for the familiar spine of the book on cyclical illnesses in her possession. When she found it at last she cracked it open to its largest section : Lycanthropy.

She quickly reviewed the list of the fundamental symptoms and characteristics at the beginning of the chapter. ­_Full transformation into a wolf-like canine during full moon...Sensitivity to silver...Duration of transformation : eight to ten hours...Cure : None...Known Remedies : None...Poisons : Werewolves demonstrate a distinct bodily aversion to wolfsbane_...

Celeste flipped ahead in the chapter and saw that the original paper of 1452 that had declared aconite to be a useful poison to use against werewolves, and had dubbed the plant 'wolfsbane' for that reason, was provided in full. She closed the book, picked up Speranza from the bed, and made for Severus's study.

XXX

Severus was interrupted mid-sentence by an abrupt knock on his door. He glared at the door in annoyance. "Come in," he huffed.

The door swung open to reveal Celeste, babe and book in arm. She marched in with her chin held high and deposited the book upon Severus's desk.

"What is it?" Severus demanded.

"Are you planning on giving him some sort of wolfsbane potion? Because it says right in there that the plant's poisonous to werewolves."

Severus glanced fleetingly at Lupin, who was suddenly very distressed-looking. "Perhaps, madam, you would do well to not jump to conclusions about things of which you know very little."

Celeste narrowed her eyes at Severus and then turned to Lupin. "Mr. Lupin," she said, holding out Speranza. "If you wouldn't mind?"

A surprised Lupin took the child while Celeste used her free hands to flip to the page that provided the beginning of the wolfsbane paper. "It says right there—"

"I know what it says, madam," Severus said harshly. "I've read it more than once."

"And so what exactly are you planning on doing with your new lab rat?"

Severus glared at his wife, and in a factual and imperious tone he said, "I plan to use the wolfsbane, which has magical properties very similar to those of the moon because of the effect of the lunar cycle on the herb, as a means of building up a natural antidote in his body against the magical effect of the moon, so that come full moon, his transformation is not a full one. Does that satisfy your prying curiosity, madam?"

Celeste was mute for a moment. "You're looking for a cure?"

"No. Only a remedy."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed. Now go; Lupin and I have arrangements to discuss."

Celeste dumbly took back Speranza from Lupin. She made a reach for her book, but Severus moved his hand to rest on its cover. She left it.

The door closed behind her and Lupin and Severus were left contemplating each other.

"You're going to help me with a poison?" Lupin asked at length.

"It is a well-established fact that even the most potent of poisons often have medicinal values. It's a question of volume, rather than substance. The human body can ingest anything without harm as long as the volume is moderate."

"I suppose I shall have to trust you."

Severus didn't answer.

"What happens first?"

"First, I would like to see how your body accommodates a dilute dosage of an infusion of wolfsbane. I will increase that dosage until we begin to notice an effect in your system, and at that point I will know the volume of wolfsbane infusion it is safe to work with. Being a natural substance it will clear itself from the system within a day, however it may take time to reach the threshold value. I will also be administering immunity-suppressing potions during this time, to prevent you from developing the antidote prematurely and skewing the results. Do you follow?"

"Yes," Lupin mumbled.

Unconvinced, Severus continued. "From there it is merely a matter of adding other ingredients to optimize the effects of the active substance, the wolfsbane."

"Er," Lupin said. "And what do you expect the results to be?"

"I have a vague notion that your transformation will not be complete. You will retain some human about you. At the very least, the narcotic properties of the drug will sedate your wolf form, thereby reducing its hazard as posed to humans."

"When do you need me to start?"

XXX

Celeste was sitting in the kitchen with Constanza, feeling rather foolish. She did not think her suspicions were entirely unfounded, but her husband definitely had a way of making one feel small and stupid.

"And that man's a teacher," she muttered under he breath.

"What's that, dear?" Constanza asked, looking up from her pastry.

"Nothing," Celeste said. Constanza returned to her task.

"I've figured out what his project is about," Celeste announced.

"Oh?" Constanza said.

"He's trying to discover a remedy for lycanthropy."

"I knew that."

"You did?" Celeste asked in disbelief.

"He told me, child."

Celeste huffed in annoyance. She watched idly as Constanza rolled out the pastry, thinking about the accursed project and how interesting it sounded.

"That's it," Celeste announced, standing up. "I have to learn how to cook."

XXX

Author's Notes :

Nebula Zirconia : Hmm. I didn't want to overplay it. It was difficult to suspend the misunderstanding in my head. It didn't seem that it could have gone on longer than it did without Severus figuring out what was going on; however, I, too, was disappointed at how short it was. So. You asked for it:

In the hallway outside her room Celeste noticed that Severus had followed her instead of heading the opposite way down the hall to his own room. She turned to face him, silently asking him to explain himself, but he merely cocked one eyebrow and opened her bedroom door for her. She entered and he followed her in, shutting the door behind them.

Severus stood against the dark door, his eyes a little too black in the flickering light that came from the fire place. His gaze on her face made Celeste uneasy. She backed up instinctively when he stepped farther into the room. Severus stopped, gauging with curiosity the effect he seemed to be having.

The baby murmured against her shoulder.

"Perhaps you should put her to bed," Severus said quietly.

Celeste did not like hearing that word from his mouth for some reason. She nodded uncomfortably and bounced Speranza in her arms.

He strode across the room then, towards Celeste, and she clutched the baby tighter. When he reached her he stepped around her and sat down on the edge of her bed.

"I will wait," he said.

Celeste fumbled with the handle of the nursery door. When it was closed behind her she leaned against it heavily, feeling quite angry and helpless. The baby murmured in her arms once more and Celeste realized that she was holding her a little too tightly for the baby's comfort. Trying to absorb herself in Speranza for the moment, she cooed softly to the baby and walked around the room for a bit.

Celeste could hear restless shifting from the next room. It would be better to come out of the room of her own free will than to have him come in and order her to come out, she thought. At least then she could retain some tattered dignity. She deposited the baby in her cradle and tucked the blanket around her.

Celeste slowly opened the door to her room once more, and without looking in the direction of her waiting husband, she stepped in and gently shut the door.

"Well?" Severus said expectantly as Celeste stood several feet away from him, unmoving.

She forced her eyes upwards, off the floor, and saw that he had loosened his cravat somewhat, to make himself more comfortable while he waited.

"I'll need a few minutes," she said, thinking she would rather change without him watching her.

Severus rose off the bed and slunk towards her. "What for?" he said. He was a foot from her now. "It shouldn't take long."

Celeste closed her eyes, waiting for whatever he was going to do. She then felt him disturb the air to her left. She opened her eyes and saw that he had walked right past her.

"I think it had a brown spine," he was saying.

"Pardon?" Celeste said, dumbfounded. Severus was scanning the books on her tall bookcase behind her.

"The book I'm borrowing from you," Severus said. "Well? Are you going to help me find it?"

"Oh," Celeste breathed. "Yes. The book."

Severus narrowed his eyes at her. "What did you think I wanted?"

Celeste shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and pulled a book from the shelf. "Nothing. Here's the book."

Severus accepted the book but stared at her intently for a moment longer. He walked to the door and opened it, but before stepping through it he turned to face her once more.

"Good night," he said in an impatient tone. The door snapped shut behind him.

Milly : Yes, I know, Celeste is a tad annoying. But the worst is almost over, I hope. It's always dangerous introducing a new character, especially when the new character has to fulfill duties as a dynamic, developing character (which means they have to start out with flaws and issues before they can evolve into a better person). It takes a lot out of the reader to put up with the OC when all they really want is Severus Snape. However, because of your comments, I have decided that perhaps I am putting too much emphasis on Celeste. Perhaps I should redirect the focus to Severus's development. Expect more of him soon. As for Celeste's name, I wanted something sibilant but that didn't start with an 's'. I also thought that a name that meant "heaven" would do well for a woman who had sky-coloured eyes. Her eyes are important because Severus has a certain weakness for them. As for her not being dark enough for our dear Severus, I did not entirely create Celeste myself. I stole some of her (wicked, wicked me!) from the one-shot Check Mate. I absolutely loved that fic and I had to do something more with the characters to satisfy me. In Check Mate, Severus is drawn to the OC _because_ she is wholesome. Being a Death Eater, it is easy for him to find depraved women, so he doesn't want them.

Floria : I'm afraid Celeste was just a little surprised. It was probably the first time she ever met a werewolf in person. You see she recovered herself in this chapter.

We3 : What a nice thing to say! I had to go bury my face in a pillow to hide my blush. And you say you like the original characters? Crikey. I'm really confused about what my readers want now. But I guess I just have to keep on trucking in the direction I'm going.

Everyone else : Thank you, thank you, thank you for reviewing.

It has come to my attention that there are readers out there that have put me on their Favourites list or their Author Alert list, but haven't reviewed once. I can't say how strange I think this is.

I'm not updating until I get at least ten reviews for this chapter. HA!


	14. The Potion Master's Assistant

Weeks passed and Severus began to experience the peevish sensation of being disoriented in his own house. Objects and even furniture were being moved around under his very nose so that he could no longer find anything that he was looking for. Perhaps as a result, he tended to lock himself up in his private study and lab for longer hours each day, taking with him into his private quarters all the effects and useful items from the rest of the house that he needed and hadn't already lost to Celeste and Constanza's decorative experimenting.

As for the two women themselves, they seemed to be spending all their time together in the kitchen, cooking or eating together. Severus often came upon them whenever he passed through the kitchen on his way to or from the garden. He hadn't been aware that Celeste knew how to cook; perhaps she was not as useless as he thought. Indeed, he had been surprised when, one evening, his mother announced proudly that Celeste had cooked all of the dishes by herself with only her supervision.

One day, passing through the kitchen to make for his study, Severus noticed that Celeste was by herself. She was peering rather skeptically into a mixing bowl set on the worktable in front of her.

"Is something the matter?" Severus inquired.

"I don't think I'm doing this right," Celeste answered without looking up.

"Ask my mother."

"She wasn't feeling very well today. It's up to me to make supper."

"I see," Severus said, glancing at the bowl. "Well, should I be worried?"

Celeste scowled. "I can cook just fine when I have a recipe to work from. It's just that Constanza keeps all her recipes in her head."

"I see." Severus stepped over to stand at the table and reached for the bowl. "What have you put in here?"

"I've already put in three cups of flour, yeast, olive oil, salt, and one cup of water."

"Making a focaccia, then?"

"Yes."

"Then you should probably put in a little more flour."

Celeste sprinkled some more flour into the bowl as Severus rolled up his sleeves and cleansed his hands with a quick spell. Without saying anything more Severus took the vegetables that were resting on the table and began paring them.

"I didn't know you knew how to cook," Celeste commented.

Severus gave her a withering look. "It's the exact same principle as potion-making. My mother taught me to cook."

"You've never cooked with us before."

"I thought I'd leave you two to your own devices. I've been busy."

"With the wolfsbane potion."

"Yes," he answered impatiently.

Celeste was silent, for which Severus was grateful. He watched absentmindedly as her white fingers manipulated the dough in the bowl. Her hands were not experienced, but they were skilled enough. Her arms were bare and flour flecked her slim forearms. Severus forced his attention back on the vegetables he was slicing when the knife nearly nicked his finger.

After a few minutes a peaceful rhythm had been established in the warm kitchen. Occasionally Celeste murmured a quiet question, which Severus politely answered. Once, Celeste leaned forward to scoop up Severus's chopped vegetables and her hand brushed his sleeve. The touch left a white mark. Severus tried to rub it out, but it showed up plainly on his black robes.

"I'm sorry," she said, reaching for a dishtowel. She dipped the corner of the towel into a crock of water and took Severus's arm so that she could dab at the white spot. Severus's eyes watched intently as she bowed her head over his sleeve, taking in the way a particular curl grazed the back of her neck as it fell forward. He felt her stop her movements abruptly and looked down, only to see that she was staring at the black mark on his bared forearm.

Severus stiffly drew down his sleeve as Celeste turned back to the table. The kitchen seemed suddenly cooler as Severus picked up his knife once more and continued his paring. He scowled.

A wail interrupted the tense silence, causing Celeste to toss down the cloth she was using to wipe the counter and rush to the corner of the kitchen where Speranza was lying in her basket. Severus watched on, feeling once again the unpleasant sensation of being present when he was not wanted. Celeste clutched Speranza and cooed into her ear as the baby peered curiously over her mother's shoulder at Severus. Again, Severus scowled.

"What did you do?" Celeste suddenly demanded, whirling around. Severus looked up from the table, confused.

"I didn't do anything," he said.

"But she just smiled—for the first time. She smiled while she was looking at you. What did you do?"

Severus glanced at the baby in alarm. She was no longer smiling, if she had in fact been doing so in the first place. He frowned at her too-innocent expression.

Again, she smiled.

"Well," Celeste said. "At least someone finds your moods amusing."

Severus huffed and Celeste came forward to take a seat at the table across from him.

"First smile at seven weeks," Celeste was saying to herself as she sat down. "That's what Landon said to expect."

"When does she start shoving dangerous objects in her mouth?" Severus asked smartly.

"Oh, she's already started shoving things in her mouth, Severus," Celeste said. "The other day I caught her trying to eat the daisies you brought in."

"Perhaps I should bring her edible herbs instead?" Severus inquired with a raised brow.

Celeste laughed suddenly and Severus felt gratified in a very unexpected way. He never relied upon people to laugh at his witticisms. His brow furrowed instinctively and once more he received a smile from Speranza.

As Celeste fed Speranza, Severus continued to prepare supper, feeling somewhat grateful that the tension of a moment ago had dissipated. Suddenly Celeste interrupted the silence.

"Are you doing this because you want to help them?"

She was talking about the potion again, Severus groaned to himself. He couldn't imagine what she found so intriguing about it. "Hardly," Severus sneered. "I've never been altruistic."

"Then what is it?" she asked, leaning forward. "The money?" she whispered.

"Most werewolves would be unable to afford to buy the potion, I think."

"Then it must be the glory."

"No one else has done it before, it's true," he said with a smile.

Celeste considered him through narrowed eyes.

"How are you getting along with Remus?"

Severus glanced suspiciously at her. "Since when do you call him by his first name?"

"He said I could," Celeste said nonchalantly. "He often comes to say hello to me before going to your study."

"Friends with the werewolf then?"

Celeste looked at him coolly. "He is a decent man. But answer my question. How are things going?"

"Well enough. The full moon is tomorrow. After that, there is only one more full moon before I must return to the school. I shall have to continue this next summer, I believe. I doubt I will have time during the school year, what with all the little x's I am paid to scribble across my students' work."

"Would work go faster...if you had someone to help you?"

"I doubt it," Severus brushed off. "It's hardly worth the bother hiring someone."

Celeste was quiet at this. Finally, she spoke. "How do you find my cooking?"

"If you want obsequious compliments, madam, you can always order one of the house elves to shower them on you."

"Technically, my cooking's sound, is it not?"

Severus gave her a look as though something he had eaten had disagreed with him. "There's nothing technical about cooking. If there was, it wouldn't be an art form," he declared peevishly. "It's about knowing the ingredients, instinctively, and being able to tell how hot something is or how much it weighs just by touching it. Technicality, indeed."

Celeste looked a little crestfallen at his comments. "Then I don't suppose you want me to help you," she said.

Severus's head snapped up. "You?"

"What's wrong with me offering to help?"

"Exactly what sort of background do you have in potions?" he asked.

"I know how to cook," Celeste said defiantly.

"Ah, yes," Severus said, smiling somewhat. "Your..._technique_ is very good."

Celeste huffed. "There isn't much to do around here," she said. "Perhaps I can do book research for you."

Severus looked at her thoughtfully. "Perhaps." He returned to his cutting. "Lupin will be here tomorrow. He is staying the night."

"Tomorrow is the full moon, you said."

"Precisely. I will be observing his transformation."

"In the same house as your infant daughter?" Celeste asked in disbelief.

"I will be taking all of the necessary precautions. Trust me."

Celeste considered this. "Can I watch?"

"If you want," Severus ceded.

XXX

The next evening was warm and clear as Celeste sat in the window seat of the main sitting room, waiting for Lupin to arrive by Floo. Speranza had been given to her grandmother to put to bed and all Celeste had to occupy her arms was a slim book on the nature of planetary forces.

At last the Floo flared up and a rumpled, ill-looking Lupin stepped over the grate. "Evening, Celeste," he smiled tiredly.

Celeste jumped up. "We've been waiting. Severus is downstairs in the laboratory." She took his arm and led the way.

When they entered the laboratory, Severus was hovering a large, silver-framed cage into the center of the room. He turned to take in his test subject's arrival.

"Lupin," he said by way of greeting. "You look awful."

"I tend to be a little ill before and after the transformation," Lupin supplied.

"I know. I've read all about it." Severus shifted the cage slightly to the right with a flick of his wand. "You have one of these yourself, I presume?"

"Yes," Lupin said uneasily. "Although mine is quite a bit smaller."

"Hmm," Severus intoned disinterestedly. "Celeste, pass me that log book. I need to take down the subject's vitals."

Celeste obediently fetched the notebook and passed it to her husband.

"Lupin, remove your robes, if you please."

Awkwardly glancing at Celeste, who was sorting through a stack of parchment lying on a table at the other end of the room, Lupin stripped off his robes until he was standing in nothing but his undershirt and trousers. Severus then proceeded to examine him.

"How much of this will she be present for?" Lupin asked quietly.

Severus cocked a brow. "She is now assisting me, so she will be watching the entire transformation."

"I see," Lupin said.

"Is there a problem, Lupin?"

"My transformation is not pleasant to watch."

"I am certain she will be able to cope."

"That's not all," Lupin said.

"Well?"

"I have to take off my clothes before I transform, otherwise I will tear them when my body changes shape."

"I am certain she will be able to cope with that too, Lupin. Now turn and cough."

Lupin sighed in a defeated manner and complied with Severus's order.

As Severus was taking down the last of his notes a ripple flickered across the muscles of Lupin's back. Lupin winced in bodily pain.

"I should probably be getting in that cage," Lupin whispered. Another spasm took him and he winced once more.

"Very well," Severus said. "I will lock you in."

From the corner, Celeste looked up from the untidy stack of parchments she was sifting through. "Is it time?"

"Almost," Severus said.

Once inside the cage, Lupin began to pull his undershirt over his head. Another rippling of muscles seized him and he had to pause while it passed. Undershirt off, he passed it to Severus, who flicked it carelessly on a nearby bench. Glancing embarrassedly at Celeste, Lupin undid the buttons of his trousers and slipped them off his legs. He again passed them to Severus.

"You're briefs, Lupin?" Severus asked.

"I'll think I'll keep them on," Lupin said.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Very well."

Another ripple danced across Lupin's chest, and then the muscles in his legs convulsed and Lupin was on the floor of the cage. He moaned in a low voice.

"Remus?" Celeste said anxiously.

"I don't think that he's aware we are here anymore," Severus observed.

Suddenly the moan grew gravelly and it turned into a vicious growl. Lupin convulsed again, this time his whole body clenching at the same time, and the sound of bones snapping and splintering could be heard. The growl became a feral shriek as Lupin's skeleton reformed itself.

Celeste flinched and Severus instinctively stepped closer to her. The beast in the cage was now sprouting thick, dark fur.

"It is finished, Celeste," Severus said. "Look."

Celeste turned around and looked. The amber-eyed wolf beyond the bars was staring menacingly at her. It raised its hackles to reveal sharp, yellow teeth.

"It can't get out of the cage, can it?" Celeste asked.

"No. It's made of silver. If he so much as grazes it with his snout while he is in wolf form he will get a burn. His wolf form is clever enough to know that."

"Good."

"Perhaps you should sit down," Severus suggested. Celeste took his advice and sat upon a nearby stool.

"What now?"

"Observe his behaviour. This could get quite boring. Coffee? He will be transformed for another eight hours at the least."

"Yes, please." She accepted the cup offered to her.

They sat in silence for nearly an hour, watching the wolf prowl about the perimeter of his cage, flicking his tail in frustration. Severus occasionally jotted down a note in his log book.

"It's rather interesting," he remarked as he finished writing something.

"What is?" Celeste asked.

"Usually werewolves injure themselves to vent their frustration at not being able find a victim. However, he hasn't bitten or scratched himself once." Severus paused. "I think that it is perhaps because we are here. He feels he has found his prey, so there is little frustration to vent. He must instead direct all his energy at finding a way out of the cage so that he can get to us."

"I see," Celeste said, a little uneasily.

Severus's remark seemed to be a little premature, however, when three hours later the wolf began to gnaw on his paw. Celeste had to close her eyes to block out the nauseating sight of the dark blood flowing from the fur.

Severus was the first to notice the sky outside of the single basement window slowly lightening. He nudged Celeste, who was slumping on her stool beside him. She looked where his finger was pointing and sighed in relief.

A few minutes later Lupin began to convulse once more. More slowly than the last time, the wolf form eased into the human one. When the transformation was complete, Lupin lay naked at the bottom of the cage, unconscious and white, with horrifying gashes and brushes covering his body. Severus unlocked the door to the cage and stepped in.

"Find me the blanket," Severus said. Celeste located it and tossed it over. She watched as her husband draped it over Lupin and then administered a Mobilus Corpus charm.

"We will put him in the guest room upstairs," Severus said.

Celeste nodded and followed her husband up the three flights of stairs to the prepared room. She watched as Severus carefully lowered Lupin onto the bed.

"We must deal with his wounds. I have some healing salves. Would you mind doing that?"

Celeste shook her head and reached for the tray of stoppered potions. She selected a purple salve and poured some onto a wad of gauze, which she then used to dab at Lupin's cuts.

With the help of the potion Lupin was cleaned up within an hour. Severus pulled the covers up over his thin body and waved out the candle. Gesturing for Celeste to go before him, Severus held the door.

XXX

Lady of Light 101­– oh, there will be plenty of Severus/Celeste scenes coming up, starting with this chapter. I guess I felt the need to stall their relationship's development until now.

Billiejoe– yes, I hate it when people do that. What do you say we start a militia group and kill them all? And yes, there will be some more Severus/Speranza interaction. Speranza will draw him to her, whether or not he tries to keep his mask of indifference in place.

Thank you all for reviewing.

I will be updating everyday until Thursday, at which point I'm off on a summer vacation for the rest of August. I will try to finish the fic before then so that you aren't left hanging for two weeks. Besides, I should really finish this before I start university (so that when I _am_ in university I can waste all my study time writing other fics, of course!)

Like I said in an earlier chapter, though, I don't really know how this is going to end. I know what's going to happen right up until the last two chapters or so. The vague idea for an ending that I do have, be forewarned, is not entirely conclusive. I hope it gives more the impression of being a beginning than an ending, if that isn't too clichéd for you.

Please review. I've been writing about ten hours a day (sob, sob) to get this finished, so it would be nice to have some feel-good comments to keep me going.


	15. Akin to Compassion

Severus roused himself at eight the next morning after a paltry three hours of sleep. He cleaned himself and donned fresh robes. Once presentable, he went to Lupin's room.

The werewolf would have to remain in the Snape manor until he was well again, a detail Severus had not overlooked; he had already assigned the house elves their responsibilities for looking after him. However, he felt the need to check on Lupin that morning before he shut himself up in his laboratory for the day.

Severus came to the heavy door of the guest room and opened without knocking. He was greeted by the sight of his wife, bending over Lupin's form.

"Celeste?" Severus said sharply. Celeste's head snapped up. "What are you doing here?"

"I was checking on him to make sure he was alright. I didn't know whether you would bother to," she added.

"I do not like him, but I am not altogether unprofessional, madam," Severus said, drawing nearer. "How is he?"

"He's still sleeping," she said. "I wish I was," she yawned.

"Go back to bed."

"No. I have to be up to look after Speranza anyways."

"Hmm." Severus uncorked a bottle of a shadowy green potion and poured a dollop of it into a glass. He stirred in some water from the pitcher.

"Lupin? Lupin!" Severus barked.

Lupin groggily squinted in Celeste's direction.

"No. Over here."

Lupin rolled his head to face Severus. He made a strangled sound in his throat and his eyes fluttered shut once more.

"Hold his head up for me," Severus ordered Celeste. With Lupin's head at the right angle, Severus pressed the rim of the glass against the man's lips.

"Lupin, you have to drink. It's a restive potion."

Miserably, Lupin's eyes cracked open again and he forced his lips to take the liquid. In a few minutes the potion was consumed and Celeste dropped the man's head back on the pillow.

"He will be asleep for several hours more," Severus said. "It would be best not to disturb him until then."

Celeste nodded and followed him out.

As they sat at the table in the kitchen eating the breakfast that Constanza had prepared, a white owl glided in the window and came to rest upon the clay knob of a crock sitting on the tabletop. Severus snatched the letter.

"Malfoy," he muttered darkly. He quickly read the letter, tossed it to one side, and continued eating his breakfast. When the owl hooted expectantly, he waved it off with an impatient hand.

"What did the letter say?" Constanza asked.

"Lucius is peeved with me for not owling him about a visit. He invited me to come by a couple weeks ago and I never did."

"Are you avoiding him?" Celeste asked.

Severus looked at her shrewdly. "I suppose it wouldn't do well for others to begin to suspect that, too." He leaned back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Malfoy is having a dinner this Friday. He wants me to come, with my wife. Perhaps I should go, after all."

Severus saw the gleam in Celeste's eye and reminded himself that she had been trapped in the manor for nearly three weeks, with no company besides an infant daughter, a recluse mother-in-law, and occasionally a werewolf. "Would you like to go?" he asked.

"I haven't anything to wear," she said. Severus rolled his eyes. He had helped her pack all her things after all, and had witnessed any deficit in her wardrobe.

"Well, providing that calamity solves itself by the end of the week, would you like to go?"

"Yes."

"Very well, then," Severus said, flipping the letter over onto its face and scribbling something on the back. He tied the parchment to the owl's leg and the bird left.

XXX

Celeste made a sighing noise every time she finished a page and turned it over, Severus couldn't help but notice. He looked in her direction more than once as she took notes for him from a stack of thick and mildewy old tomes in the corner of his study. She was chiseling her way through the seven-volume set Severus had on lunar forces.

She sighed once more and flicked over a page, causing Severus to look up from his own book. He watched distractedly as she pulled a lock of hair behind her ear. He was not used to having someone else so close to him while he worked.

Severus forced himself to get back to work by reminding himself what Dumbledore would say if he could see him now. It would probably be some annoying, ambiguous statement that would haunt him for years to come.

"Curse the old man," Severus muttered under his breath.

"Pardon?" Celeste called over her shoulder.

"Nothing," he growled.

Celeste merely sighed and turned the page. Again Severus's eyes were drawn to her. He cast about for something to say.

"Have you found anything interesting?"

"No. Then again, I'm reading the volume that deals with the waning gibbous, so I don't exactly expect there will be much relevant information here."

"I see."

The curl on her neck, the one and the same curl he had been so entranced by the preceding day in the kitchen, shifted against her skin as she turned her head back to her work. His fingers twitched, and he fixed a glare on nothing in particular.

"How do you suppose Lupin is faring?" Celeste asked suddenly. "It's nearly three. Should we check on him?"

Severus leaned back. "We could see if he's awake. He may be hungry."

"I was thinking I could go get some tea anyways. I'll check on him on the way," she said as she rose from her chair and stretched. Severus watched the way she rubbed her neck with her hands.

When the door clicked shut behind her Severus buried his face in his hands.

XXX

Lupin was conscious by the evening and off by the following day. His wounds had healed nicely, Severus had his control transformation notes, and Lupin had experienced the most attentive post-transformation care he had ever had, or so he told a flattered Celeste.

Friday evening found Severus viewing himself critically in his mirror. His robes, black as always, were of a fine material that would quickly place his status as a wealthy pureblood. He hoped his dress was enough to intimidate others into avoiding conversation with him; he found these dinners noxiously tedious.

Constanza had more than happily agreed to watch Speranza for the evening, and Severus had suddenly realized an unexpected benefit of having a small child when it occurred to him that he could use Speranza as an excuse for him and Celeste to leave the dinner early. The very thought that he could halve the duration of the ordeal made the whole evening ahead of him less daunting.

He adjusted his high collar and stepped back from the mirror. He doubted he would ever be satisfied by what he saw there.

Celeste was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, her cloak wrapped about her to protect her from the chill of the evening. She gave him an odd sort of smile when he descended. She seemed to be anticipating the dinner. Severus draped his cloak about his shoulders and opened the door for her. "Madam."

She passed through the doorway and he followed her down the steps. They would be walking to the perimeter of the property to Apparate to the front steps of the Malfoy manor; it was the proper way to arrive for such an occasion.

After they had Apparated onto the manor steps, a house elf answered the door at their knock. "Sir," it squeaked, bowing its head, "Madam."

Severus and Celeste followed the young house elf through the hallway of a grandly decorated manor. The taste in this household seemed to be for curios and objets d'art that Lucius and his wife had brought back from distant parts of the world while on their travels. It was apparent that Lucius merely sought a way to show off. He was a sophisticated little dandy, or so Severus would have described him.

The house elf led them towards the sounds of people talking and laughing, and soon they came to a large room that Severus saw was filled with individuals of varying degrees of acquaintance and nobody.

"Severus!" a jovial voice called from somewhere nearby. Lucius Malfoy came into view and gave Severus a falsely warm handshake. "And you brought your lovely wife. Stella, was it?"

"Celeste," Severus said through his clenched teeth.

"Ah, yes, that's right," Lucius said dismissively, looking Celeste up and down. "I specified in my letter that he was to bring you, my dear," he said.

"That was...very kind of you," Celeste said uncertainly.

"Please give your cloaks to the house elf," Lucius said. "Dobby, come here."

The house elf, Dobby, came forward a little warily and held out his arms to take the cloaks.

"Dobby is a terrible house elf, but I'm lending the other one to my mother-in-law. She's bedridden." He turned to the house elf. "But if we have another incident like the one with the ironing this morning, I will have you head cut off and put on the wall, bed-ridden mother-in-law or no." The house elf squeaked and dashed from the room with Severus and Celeste's cloaks. Lucius laughed wickedly. "I was at the Black household yesterday. Have you ever heard of their stuffed elf head collection? I have to say I quite like the idea. It seems to have some sway with Dobby, at least."

With that, Lucius was abruptly distracted by a passing guest and seemed to forget Severus and Celeste. Celeste turned to her husband. "Stuffed heads?"

Celeste soon spotted someone she knew and left Severus to say hello to her. Alone now, and having no desire to involve himself in meaningless conversation with the crème of inbred pureblood society, he shifted to occupy a niche between a tapestry and the doorway so that he could watch the occupants of the room. They were mostly young people, and the majority of them seemed to be behaving much less composedly than if their older acquaintances had been present. The chatter was noisy, the laughter decadent, and rather too much wine was being served. He noted with slight satisfaction that Celeste was holding the same glass she had been given half an hour ago; however, the group of people she was talking with were a little too rosy-cheeked in his opinion. One young man in particular seemed to be a little too friendly, perhaps a side effect of the wine, perhaps not. Severus ground his teeth as the man's hand brushed Celeste's elbow.

Dinner was announced after an hour of Severus's skeptical observings. The guests rose and walked to the dining room across the hall in small groups and pairs; Celeste found Severus and took his arm. At the dining table, however, their names were on small cards at nearly opposite ends of the table. Severus was positioned between two people he did not know, and sat across from a couple who seemed very involved with each other. Celeste, on the other hand, sat at the head of the table on Lucius Malfoy's right.

Celeste cast him a somewhat surprised, if apprehensive, look, and took her seat.

The seven-course meal passed rather slowly in Severus's opinion; then again, he spent the meal analyzing Celeste and Lucius's every move. It seemed Lucius would alternate between talking in a low voice to Celeste while refilling her goblet, and talking loudly to a man on his left about money, travel, and other things that supposedly impressed young women. Severus looked up and down the table for Narcissa, wondering what she thought of the display, when he spotted her at the other end off the table doing much the same as her husband with a pair of young men. It would seem that Lucius and Narcissa were well suited for each other.

As Severus's eyes dragged along the far side of the table, seeking a distraction from Lucius and Celeste, he came gaze to gaze with the heavy-lidded eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange. A slow, cat-like smile crept to her lips. She nudged her husband's arm and Rudolphus turned and spotted Severus as well. He suggestively raised his eyebrows, and then resumed the conversation he was having with a man across from him. Bellatrix remained smiling at Severus in an unnerving way.

Severus directed his attention at his dessert before him. An uncomfortable encounter after supper was no doubt in the cards. He could not fathom what it was that Lucius had wanted to discuss with him and the Lestranges; but no doubt Bellatrix and her husband already knew, putting him at a disadvantage.

The dessert dishes were cleared and the guests rose from the table in an ununified manner. Some people gathered around the fireplace while others wandered back to the drawing room. Severus looked about for Celeste and spotted her at one side of the room, waiting for him, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by Rudolphus, Bellatrix, and Rabastan Lestrange, Rudolphus's brother.

"Severus Snape," Bellatrix said in a singsong voice. "Long time, no see."

"Mrs. Lestrange," Severus said curtly. "What a pleasure to see you again."

"How are things, holed up in that old school all the time?" Rudolphus asked.

"No less tedious than in my schooldays, Lestrange," Severus said loftily, warranting a chuckle from Rabastan.

"Well," Bellatrix said pleasantly, "Lucius and we have been putting our heads together and we think that we may have come up with something to ease the boredom."

"Let's use Lucius's study, shall we?" Rudolphus said, leading the way out of the dining room.

Severus cast a look in the direction where he had last seen Celeste and found she had vanished. Feeling the excuse that he needed to find his wife was a rather weak one, he surrendered and followed the Lestranges out of the room.

They entered a small room on the second floor in which a fire blazed hungrily in the hearth. Rabastan tossed a log onto the flames with a brutish hand and remained standing silently by the mantle, as Bellatrix seated herself in a high-backed chair like a queen and Rudolphus went to stand behind her.

"What is this about, that you and Lucius have been apparently hounding me down for the past few weeks?" Severus drawled in a bored voice.

Rudolphus grinned. "The Dark Lord, Severus."

Severus froze upon hearing the unexpected name. "Pardon?"

Rudolphus stepped out from behind his wife's chair and crept across the oriental rug toward Severus. "The Dark Lord, Severus. We are going to return him to power."

Severus's mask of disdain covered the muted shock he was feeling. Was this to be the second rising of the Dark Lord, so soon? No, it couldn't be, Severus told himself. The Potter child didn't even know how to hold a wand yet.

"I see," Severus said with a contemptuous curl of his lip. "And how exactly were you planning on doing that?"

Bellatrix rose from her chair suddenly, a furious flush colouring her face. "You were in his inner circle, with us!" she hissed. "Together, we were his most staunch and loyal supporters. Don't you want him restored, so that we may continue to help him with his work?"

Bellatrix's legendary volatility had been sparked, Severus saw. "It is not that I believe the Dark Lord will not or cannot return to power," Severus amended. "It is merely that no one knows where he is." He gave them all a rather supercilious look. "As such, your plan to restore him to his former position seems quite ambitious, indeed."

Rudolphus was looking at him intently. "What if I told you that the Aurors who nearly put your dear father in prison knew where he was?"

Severus sneered. "Frank and Alice Longbottom have Voldemort's mailing address in their address book, do they?"

Bellatrix bristled indignantly. "As head Aurors, they are privy to much of the Ministry's secret information. They've been investigating Voldemort's whereabouts for the past three years and we believe they have finally uncovered something. Lucius says he saw a report—"

"Where _is_ Lucius, if I may ask?" Severus wondered aloud. "It was he who mentioned this to me in the first place."

"Lucius will not be interrogating the Longbottoms with us. His position in the Ministry is too valuable to the Dark Lord for it to be threatened," Rudolphus said.

"I see." Severus looked at each of the Lestanges' faces in turn. He noticed that Rabastan had not said anything, but he wasn't surprised, as Rabastan was reputed to be a rather thick individual.

"There is no need for you to question my loyalties," Severus lied at length. "If the Dark Lord has a staunch and zealous supporter, it has always been myself. I merely doubt that the Longbottoms have any idea where he is, and I believe it would be fruitless to question them." He paused for effect. "The Longbottoms are a very popular couple. They are both war heroes, and I think that should any ill befall them, one way or another, wizarding society would demand a harsh justice to whomever was responsible."

"So," Rudolphus said, "you are not with us."

"I do not think it would be prudent," Severus said.

"I'm sure your tune will change once we get the information we want from the Longbottoms," Rudolphus said.

"Perhaps."

"Very well. But keep your mouth shut about this, Snape." Rudolphus paused and smiled. "You were always good at doing that."

Severus gave a polite nod of his head, and swept from the room.

Poking his head into several noisy rooms, Severus could not find Celeste anywhere. After his tense encounter with the Lestranges he wanted nothing more than to collect his wife and leave early, but Celeste had apparently been swallowed up by the monstrous house.

Severus twisted the latch of a secluded room at the back of the house, not really believing he would find Celeste this far from the rest of the party, but checking all the same. He was somewhat surprised to see that Celeste was standing in the room by the fire, alone. Severus quietly stepped into the room and shut the door noiselessly behind himself.

A log in the grate collapsed, causing an upward shower of sparks to rise in the smoke. The light of the flickering flames played against her white skin, making it a golden orange, and her hair gleamed darkly in the dim room. As always, one stray curl had unraveled itself from the others and hung against her neck.

Severus found himself feeling oddly impure as he stood there in the shadows watching her. It was perhaps because of the sinister encounter he had just had with his former Death Eater companions. It was a bad idea to come to this dinner.

Celeste sighed, making the same noise Severus had grown accustomed to hearing the past week while he worked beside her. She raised her wineglass so that the rim grazed her lip, and held it there.

Severus was about to step forward and speak to her, tell her something, say that perhaps they should leave, now, together, when the double doors at the far side of the room opened and Lucius Malfoy entered the room.

Lucius's white teeth gleamed in the dim light like the fangs of an animal that had spotted its prey. He closed the doors behind him with a snap, and, having caught Celeste's attention, closed the distance between the two of them.

"You got away from me, my dear," he rebuked.

"I was looking for my husband."

"Ah. And where has he got to, do you suppose? I haven't seen him for the better part of a half hour." Lucius grinned. "Do you think he left the party without you?"

"I should hope not."

Lucius laughed indulgently. "Your glass is nearly empty. May I fill it for you?"

"No. Thank you."

Lucius filled his own glass and went to stand close to Celeste. Lowly and deliberately, he said, "You are a very lovely woman, do you know that?"

Celeste did not respond, though Severus could see her shoulders tense.

"Does Severus ever tell you so?" Lucius smiled when she didn't answer and took a leisurely swig from his glass. "That's unfortunate."

A tense pause ensued while Lucius nursed his glass.

"What do you see in him, if you don't mind my asking?"

Severus began to suspect that Lucius was a little drunk, if he was daring to be so blunt in his approach.

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked.

Lucius seemed to pick his words. "I mean, the quality that beautiful people usually value the most in others, is beauty, my dear. You are quite beautiful. Severus is not."

"I like his face. He looks like his mother, and my daughter looks like him."

"Unfortunate for your daughter," Lucius said dryly, taking another sip from his glass.

"He has been good to me," Celeste defended.

"Good!" Lucius laughed. "I could tell you stories about Severus that would change your mind about that rather quickly."

"I don't know if I care to hear them," Celeste said.

Lucius swirled the wine in his glass. "You're even lovelier when you're afraid." Lucius reached out and touched the curl on her neck. Celeste tried to pull away, but his hand was already wrapped round the back of her neck, holding her in place as he whispered with winey breath against her cheek.

"I've known your husband all his life. I was there when they put the Dark Mark on his arm. I was there when–"

Lucius stopped abruptly. His eyes had met Severus's from around the shell-like curve of Celeste's ear.

Celeste, sensing the third presence that had caused Lucius to stop, turned to look over her shoulder. Her wide eyes met Severus's, and Severus at last stepped out of the shelter of the shadows.

"Celeste," he said simply. In a colder voice, "Lucius."

Lucius quickly withdrew his mouth from where it had been pressed against Celeste's cheekbone and guiltily shoved his hand in his robes.

"Severus," Lucius said. Celeste did not say anything. "You should know better than to play the spy in someone else's house."

Severus merely looked at him.

"I have a party to host. I should go." With that, Lucius left the room and closed the doors behind him.

Celeste had her back to him as she stared into the fire before her. Severus wished that she was facing him, but he couldn't think of anything to say to make her turn around. He walked forward until he was standing beside her and stared into the flames with her until the heat hurt his eyes.

"How long were you watching for?"

"Since Lucius entered the room. I was going to ask if you wanted to leave."

"I wish you had."

They were silent again for a few minutes.

"Would you like to go now?" Severus asked. "I doubt we will have to make our excuses to our hosts."

Celeste did not respond. Severus looked at her.

"Celeste?"

Celeste turned suddenly and faced him. Her blue eyes were dark and uncertain in colour in the firelight.

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" he asked.

Celeste extended one hand towards Severus. She grasped his wrist and pulled it towards her; Severus could feel his skin tingle under her touch. Slowly, deliberately, she pushed up his sleeve.

Severus stared down at the gruesome black mark on his arm.

"That," she said.

Severus raised his eyes to meet hers, her own dark and ambiguous eyes. "I didn't," he said.

Celeste looked at him, confused. "Then who made that choice, if it wasn't you?"

Severus contemplated the weight of his answer. "Those who had more power over my life than I did."

Something akin to compassion flickered in Celeste's eyes, then was gone. She dropped his hand and turned back to the fire.

The curl on her neck gleamed golden in the firelight, and cast a twirling bluish shadow on her fair skin. Unbidden, as Severus watched himself almost with horror, his hand rose and brushed the curl off her neck.

She did not pull away.


	16. A Spy in One's Own House

Um, no, aljake. I was not playing chess. I : went on summer vacation, broke my foot, worked on some original fiction that ACTUALLY MIGHT EARN ME SOME MONEY (unlike this crap), had a big drunken going away party where I barfed my guts out, moved to Toronto, started university, and endured Frosh week. Try again next time : )

This chapter is dedicated to aljake, who reviewed not to tell me he liked my last chapter, but to tell me to get off my ass and write the next one. You have him to thank.

This chapter is short, but that's because it's merely a buffer chapter before the action picks up in the next one.

XXX

Severus avoided her to the best of his abilities for the next week following the dinner party at the Malfoy manor. He had slept with strange ease that night, his mild insomnia banished by the small smile Celeste had cast his way as she shut the door to her room; but by the following morning, when Severus awoke and the evening before washed back into his memory, the exchange they had shared in the dim room had taken on a new grotesqueness that even he could not bear. The intimacy of their fire-lit words, recalled the following day in the unforgiving grey light of morning and of sanity, scored him close to the bone and left him with a confused shame he could not dispel.

Beginning the following day, Severus isolated himself from Celeste­–and his mother as well, since they had become inseparable–and threw himself into his work. He did not seek out Celeste in the kitchen for help with his reading or other menial tasks. He barricaded the double doors to his office, ate his meals alone, and did not go to bed till late in the night when he was certain the house was asleep.

Still, she managed to creep up on him in the library once, and corner him, before he even knew she was in the room.

"Hello, Severus," she said, a question lying between her words. Severus considered her apprehensively.

"I have no reading for you to do today," he said brusquely, turning from her and pulling a book from the shelf he had been examining.

"That's fine. I think your mother was missing me in the kitchen."

Severus did not reply. He stared intently at the first page of the book and read the opening sentence several times. He was waiting for Celeste to go, but exasperatingly, she merely stood and watched him.

In a different tone, she spoke again. "Severus." Celeste was quiet again. Suddenly, she made that small, feminine noise that Severus was beginning to grow so accustomed to hearing. Severus clapped his book shut and whirled around.

"Is there not enough to keep you busy in the kitchen? Or must you periodically interrupt me to amuse yourself?" He crossed his arms with his book under one elbow.

Celeste looked stunned. "Pardon?"

Severus sneered and turned around again, putting the book—he knew not what it was called—back on the shelf. "I have work to do."

He stared past the spines of the books and waited for her to leave. Finally, he heard Celeste spin on her heel and march from the room.

Inexplicably furious, Severus snatched a random book from the shelf and threw it across the room.

A few days after his encounter with Celeste in the library, Severus found himself sitting at his desk, his tired thoughts rebelliously straying as he tried to work out a formula. He rubbed his raw eyes for the tenth time and stood from his chair. Pacing his room with impetuous movements, he finally stopped in defeat in front of the doors that led out to the hallway.

Half way down the stairs to the kitchen, he stopped. He did not allow himself to relax, but instead remained alert and poised to return the way he came at a moment's notice.

"Pass the coltello, per favore."

He could hear them speaking from where he stood. Fatigue suddenly washed over him and he slumped against the wall, passively allowing the comforting sounds of their voices and the kitchen wrap around him.

XXX

After that, it was more than Severus could do to resist spying on them. At least once a day he would creep down from his office to eavesdrop on their conversation. Usually it was the kitchen, but sometimes the drawing room or the library as well. His mother's presence was useful in that it meant that it was a prompt for Celeste to speak herself. From the kitchen stairs or from the shadow of the doorway, Severus could hear Celeste voice her thoughts, her hopes, her interests, her fears. Severus decided he liked the way her voice sounded when she was talking to someone other than himself.

What he anticipated the most, however, was mention of his own name.

"I would like for Severus to hold her more."

She said it. His name. Severus strained his ears to listen for what she said next.

"I think Speranza would like it too," Celeste continued.

"He takes her flowers everyday," Constanza commented.

"But he never touches her."

"It's not in a man's place. His father never held him. It's the woman's job."

Celeste was silent. Severus couldn't see her from where he stood on the stairs above the kitchen, and so he could he read the facial expression that would have enlightened him to the nature of her silence.

At last, in a small voice that Severus could barely make out, she said, "I think it is the father's job, too."

Constanza made a skeptical noise. In the circle she had been brought up in, the men had nothing to do with their sons before they learned to speak, and rarely had much to do with their daughters before it was time to marry them off.

Severus listened to the lulling rhythm of the vegetable knife knocking against the wood of the tabletop and the scraping sound of a wooden spoon stirring sauce in a skillet. He leaned against the wall of the stairwell and closed his eyes. Celeste spoke again, a low murmur that no matter how hard he tried, Severus could not make out. Her words warbled quietly under the din of the cooking and were lost long before they reached his ears.

Severus felt he would have given anything to hear what those words were.

XXX

Severus may have forsaken his wife and mother, but he continued to bring Speranza flowers every morning. The growth potions he administered to plants to speed their development encouraged also the growth of the unwanted weeds, and as a result, the plots needed daily weeding. He would rise early each morning before anyone else in the house awoke and he would tend to his garden. When he was finished, he would take a small bouquet, usually of daisies, but sometimes of fragrant herbs, up to Speranza's room.

She still slept with her lips parted, but the tendency was becoming somewhat endearing as everyday her face became more defined and distinct. Fine black eyebrows had grown in, arching dramatically and recalling her Italian heritage. Thick eyelashes delicately emphasized her pale eyelids and fed into the roundness of her white cheeks. Her black hair, what little of it she was growing, was uncompromisingly straight, but it was glossy and soft to the touch. Her fragile hands were often clenched in odd shapes as she slept and dreamt; sometimes they covered her eyes in fists, sometimes they grasped the edge of her blanket to her face.

Severus crept into Speranza's nursery more times than Celeste would ever know; he would certainly not admit to it. Speranza's door opened to the hallway and so it was very easy for him to check on her in the night when he could not sleep. Once, she had begun to cry, and it was Severus, not Celeste, who comforted her and sent her back to sleep without ever waking the mother.

Her breathing was so shallow, and her face so white, Severus would often watch her for an hour at a time to make sure he wasn't imagining the gentle rise and fall of her belly; he did not have to worry about Celeste catching him. If he heard movement in the next room he would slip out through the nursery door into the hall, like a shadow–a shadow father.

XXX

A clear melody drew Severus towards the nursery. Through the open door he could see Celeste gently swaying with the baby in her arms. Her hair was down, the first time he had seen it so since the day he had encountered her at the top of the stairs in her parents' house. Speranza appeared to be grasping it in her hands.

He felt something indescribably painful.

XXX

In his dreams he reached for the errant lock of hair. It glimmered seductively and wavered slightly in the still air. As his skin brushed it, it jumped to life and ensnared his fingers. More curls fell down and wrapped themselves around his hand. There was nothing he could do. He could not pull free.

XXX

Remus Lupin seemed to sense his mood. He fiddled with the frayed cuffs of his robes as he sat on the edge of his chair before Severus's desk. The potions master in question was staring intently at a fixed point in the air in front of him.

"Severus?" Remus tried gently. Severus did not respond.

"The..." Remus paused, casting about for something conversational. "The house looks very nice since you started fixing it up."

Severus surfaced from his thoughts and cast Remus an impatient look. "What?"

"The house," Remus said.

Severus shook his head distractedly. "It's Celeste's doing."

"Just the same. The place has quite a different atmosphere to it now."

Severus gave a shallow, curt nod. He did not much care for the slant of Lupin's conversation. He did not wish to talk of Celeste. The mere mention of the woman's name frustrated him in a way he could not pin down, and therefore did not wish to explore. With a decisive movement, Severus snatched up the formula he had been working on, signifying to Lupin that the chat was over.

However, he was right. Sunlight flooded the house in a way it had not before, diffusing into the dimmest corner and washing away the shadows that had always stained the interior of the manor. The other things, the furniture and the walls and the things that Severus did not understand much about, all had a freshness to them that he could not explain. He thought he dared not say it was an improvement.

XXX

"I would like for Severus to hold her more," Celeste said. "I think Speranza would like it too."

"He takes her flowers everyday," Constanza commented.

"But he never touches her."

"It's not in a man's place. His father never held him. It's the women's job."

Celeste was silent. After a while, she said, "I think it is the father's job, too."

Constanza made a skeptical noise. In Italy, in the circle she had been brought up in, the men had nothing to do with their sons before they learned to speak, and rarely had much to do with their daughters before it was time to marry them off.

The lulling rhythm of the vegetable knife knocking against the wood of the tabletop and the scraping sound of a wooden spoon stirring sauce in a skillet did not drown out the sound of a creaking step. Celeste spoke again, in a low voice so that only Constanza could hear :

"I think he's listening again."

XXX

We3 : The way I wrote it is the British way, but thanks for stickling just the same. Sticklers unite!

Purplerebecca : Lucius isn't so much boisterous as just plain lecherous. Come on, he's a smarmy guy with a lot of money. Don't you think all the signs scream "lecher!"? And about the sighing thing : the act in itself has no significance whatsoever. It's the effect it has on Severus that's important. It's the fact that he's noticing it, and that it's distracting him. He's beginning to pick up on her little habits and mannerisms, a sign that she's not a cardboard character to him anymore. I could have picked another mannerism, I suppose, but I have a female friend who makes these little sighing noises all the time to emphasize what she's saying when she's talking and I just sort of stole that. My friend's a singer, so her sighs are calculated to sound nice. The thing is, guys really respond to the little noises that she unconsciously makes, and she doesn't seem to be aware of the effect she has on them. So, here we have Celeste, innocently indulging in a habit, completely unaware of the confusion she is inflicting upon Severus. Does that explain the sighing? But yeah, in retrospect, it's kind of an annoying mannerism to give to a character. I'll keep that in mind next time.

Sum1strange : Yep. You stick in there and you get the good stuff in the end. But isn't it all the better for the wait?

Kerichi : How did you find out about my little disillusionment spell? I thought I had made the spell undetectable. Shucks. Well, you found my story anyways, and I have to say you gave me the most thorough reviews I have ever had. If anyone out there wants to know how to make someone's day with a review, check out Kerichi's reviews, and while you're at it, we3's and Nebula Zirconia's too.

Not that all you other regulars don't put a smile on my face when you review. In fact, I'm having a severe smile deficit right now and I think you should probably review. Now. All I have in my crappy little dorm fridge is saltines.

My author's notes are LONG, aren't they? Almost as long as the chapter...


	17. By His Side

Thanks aljake. And just so you know, there are only two or three chapters left (please don't count on three).

XXX

She stood framed in a halo of golden afternoon light at the window. Her brow furrowed momentarily at the seal of the letter in her hand, but she tore it open and read it without much hesitation. An appalled expression took her face, and slowly warmed into a look of amusement.

"I've received an owl," Celeste said.

Severus froze.

"Severus?" Celeste turned and looked at Severus, who had been watching her from the dim doorway. He had thought she hadn't known he was there.

Celeste took a few steps towards him, and then stopped and looked down at the letter again. "Here," she said. "Read it."

Now forced to, Severus stepped forward into the room and took the letter from her. His eyes flicked down to the bottom of the page to read the signature.

"Lucius Malfoy," Severus read. He glanced up at Celeste and saw her amused expression.

"He's sent me an invitation for a social function ministry is putting on—the Wizemgamot's four hundredth anniversary. Apparently, it's going to be quite the to-do." She waved the gilded invitation card in her hand.

"I see," Severus said. He stiffly held the letter out to her, the thought of reading it now somewhat nauseating. He searched her face with hooded eyes, willing himself to find evidence there; but there was none. "And do you intend to go?"

Celeste blinked. "Pardon?"

"Invitations for such an event would be difficult to come by. Surely you don't want to pass this up?" Sarcasm was in his voice now. Severus nearly wanted her to go.

Celeste's face hardened. "I hadn't even considered it," she said. "Malfoy repulses me, and besides, why on earth would I go to a social function like this with a man who was not my husband?"

At her heated tone Severus dropped his gaze. He had presumed incorrectly, but that did not dispel the now irrational anger he felt—the anger he seemed always to feel these days.

"And why not?" he asked silkily.

Celeste stared at him in open, angry bewilderment. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded. Severus did not know how to reply. "Why? Why skulk around spying for two weeks, why throw things, why antagonize everyone who crosses your path?"

Severus felt his blood turn cold with anger. She did not understand. Who was she to say these things? His anger must have shown in his expression because Celeste took a pace back.

Several minutes passed while they stood defiant and furious, staring at each other. At last, "I have to wake Speranza." Celeste turned and walked from the room.

Severus stood for many minutes staring at the door she had passed through, Malfoy's letter crushed in his fist.

XXX

Celeste could feel Constanza's eyes on her clumsy paring and the knowledge only made her angrier. The knife slipped and took too large a piece.

"Did something happen?" Constanza asked.

Celeste shook her head without looking up.

"What did Severus say?"

Celeste dropped the paring and rubbed her face with her hands. "What makes you assume it has to do with Severus?"

Constanza considered Celeste regretfully. "Sometimes," she said, "sometimes he can be almost like his father." Guilt flickered across her face. "If he heard me say that...Do you think he's listening now?"

"No," Celeste reassured her. "And I doubt he'll be listening any more. I told him I knew about him watching us."

Constanza made a contemplative sound and took Celeste's paring from her. Celeste watched the nimble hands render the task simple.

"And yet, you loved his father, did you not?" Celeste asked. "That is why you never talk of him."

There was a skip in the rhythm of Constanza's knife. "He was my husband," she said.

"And that is all it took for you to love him?" Celeste asked. She found Constanza's response inexplicably infuriating. It made her words heedless and cruel, she knew.

"Yes," Constanza murmured. "He was my husband, and so I loved him."

"Weren't there other men?" Celeste asked spitefully.

Constanza's expression hardened. "No, there were not. Nor did I ever wish there to be. He was my husband and it was my duty as his wife to stand by him." Constanza raised her eyes to look into Celeste's own. "I took pride in it."

Celeste gazed levelly at the woman before her. Small and quiet, with subdued eyes and voice, the woman who had become her companion and friend over the past two months had never spoken with as much force as now. Her black eyes blazed with a fierceness and Celeste was at once struck by how alike they were to Severus's own. Constanza continued in a strange, strong voice—one that did not seem to belong to her.

"I did not know my husband before we were to be married, I did not know if he would be a good man, to me or my children. But the only thing I had power over was whether or not I was a good wife and mother. I fulfilled my duties as both of those. I lost my infant daughter, my son left, and my husband was cruel to me. But I did what was required of me. I have nothing to be sorry for and I have no regrets, apart from things over which I had no control. And yes, I loved and stood by my husband. It was my duty." Constanza's unflinching gaze held Celeste's.

Celeste closed her eyes to break the shaming gaze. She heard Constanza pick up her paring once more and set to work.

Constanza's words, Severus's face, the hopeless, trapped feeling she was so often seized by these past eight years washed through Celeste's mind. The kitchen was suddenly too hot—oppressing almost. Eyes still closed, Celeste swayed a little and recovered herself, but then Speranza began to wail from her basket and Celeste could only flee from the room.

Her pace quickened to a run and but she stopped quickly when she found she could go no further than the drawing room. Still able to hear Speranza's faint crying, Celeste opened the double doors and hid herself in the dim room. Once inside, she sank to the floor.

Celeste did not know how long she sat there, slumped in a heap in the long shadows of the room. Speranza's cries must have stopped eventually, but she could not hear them from the room anyway. Slowly, gradually, Celeste began to feel foolish. She regretted running from the kitchen as she had. Embarrassment of her action weighed her down into the floor, preventing her from standing and returning. She did not know what had come over her.

At the very back of it, however, she was partly grateful for her own cowardice. The room was soothingly still and while she sat there with her eyes closed she was able to think.

XXX

Severus hesitated outside the doors to the drawing room. His mother had advised him to seek out Celeste, and while it had gone against his better judgment to do so, here he found himself standing in the hall with one hand on the door handle. However, his deliberation was forced into action as Celeste's words from earlier were recalled. It would be infuriating to have her think he was spying, unsuccessfully, on her again. He briskly opened the door and stepped in.

The room was unlit, which surprised Severus. Celeste could not be there. He was turning to go when he noticed the still form kneeling on the floor, facing away from him.

"Celeste?" Severus said.

Celeste's head turned enough for Severus to make out her profile in the dark, but no more. Her expression was dull.

Silence ensued as Severus stood in the doorway, considering Celeste. Light cut into the room from behind him but it only illuminated as far as Celeste sat.

"Celeste?" Reluctantly concerned, Severus walked to Celeste and held out his hand to lift her off the ground. She stared at it a moment before taking it.

"What are you doing?" Severus asked.

"I was thinking about things," was Celeste's reply. They stood for a moment like that, considering each other in the dark. It was nighttime already and it was much darker now than it had been when Celeste first entered the room that evening. In the reticent light, neither one could tell if the other's eyes were really meeting their own.

"Constanza said you ran out on her," Severus said, more to break the uneasy intimacy of the moment than to prompt Celeste to speech.

"I should apologize to her," Celeste said. She sighed and looked toward the door.

"I am certain she was only concerned about you," Severus said stiffly.

Celeste shook her head. "No. Not for leaving. I should apologize for not understanding some things when I should have."

Severus peered at Celeste in the dim light. He was somewhat relieved that her dulled mood did not seem to be a result of his harsh words earlier, although he would be loath to admit that he regretted his implied accusations of that afternoon. In his opinion, they had been perfectly justified. As he considered her, his thoughts traveled on in that vein, mercilessly and unrelentingly. Malfoy's satisfied smirk flitted into his head then, closely followed by Lupin's too-innocent expression. He could feel his face turn back into the mask it normally was. When he spoke again, his voice was flat and cool.

"I suppose you will always have friends to turn to if living here becomes too harsh for you."

Celeste looked up at Severus in confusion and dismay. "It is fine here. I didn't mean to imply—"Celeste stopped. She screwed her brows together in distressed frustration. "What are _you _implying?"

Severus did not say anything and that was enough for Celeste. Celeste whirled from Severus and cast an incinerus spell on the chandelier hanging from the room. In the broad light she turned to face him once more.

"I did not ask for Lucius's attentions," she stated coolly and angrily.

"But no doubt it was flattering all the same," Severus said with derisiveness. He was aware of the foolishness of his own words, however, and quickly switched tracks. Why should he care about Malfoy so much? It was besides the point he was making. "I know this marriage has been as much of a burden and inconvenience to you as it has been to me," he stated levelly. "You justly have no sense of obligation to fulfill the vows you were forced to take." He watched Celeste's face become slack with surprise and felt a burning annoyance for what he considered to be a feigned unfamiliarity with the perspective he was voicing. He continued. "You had no need to stay here after I..._liberated_ you from your father's house. However, perhaps you had the sense to realize that my family wealth will be useful for Speranza's upbringing and education—for securing her a place in society. As far as I can see it, that is the only logical reason for your remaining here."

Celeste considered him with a stony face. "Are you suggesting that I leave?"

Severus looked at her. Asking her to leave had never occurred to him. His heated words of a moment ago had been vindictive—the point he was trying to make unclear even to himself. And yet, as she spoke those words, with the open double doors to the side of the room, an irrational and impulsive voice spoke through his lips: "Yes."

Celeste was very still. Severus continued. "If you do not wish to be here, if our marriage is to you the burden I know it must be, then go."

The room was very silent as Severus considered Celeste and Celeste gazed at the far wall, where a square of vividly coloured wallpaper betrayed a painting that had once hung there. At length, Severus drew the edges of his cloak together and turned to leave the room.

"Where are you going?" Celeste asked in a dull voice.

Severus turned back to face her. "I have a meeting with someone." With that, he strode from the room, leaving a frail-looking Celeste behind him.

XXX

"Thank you, Severus," Dumbledore said solemnly. "I will send an owl to Alastor about this as soon as possible. I will not say where I received the information from, however. I am afraid he still does not trust you."

Severus nodded imperceptibly and stood to leave. "Headmaster," he said.

"Good evening, Severus. And let us hope for the safety of the Longbottoms."

Severus gave a slight nod of his head and swept from the room.

Dumbledore had been surprised to hear from Severus, and had been even more intrigued when Severus had requested a private meeting. However, Severus had felt that the information he had come across at Malfoy's dinner party would be of concern to the old headmaster. Accordingly, Dumbledore was likely already planning the protective charms to erect around the Longbottoms' cottage as Severus walked around the lake toward the gates of the school grounds.

The night was chilly despite the season and Severus intended to walk to the edge of the school grounds to disapparate as soon as possible; however, something about the way the moonlight hit the surface of the lake took him back to a night like this only a few months ago. Severus briefly hesitated by the lake and recalled the different mood of the occasion. His father had only just been buried and he had been preoccupied with the wellbeing of his mother; Speranza had seemed a strange new entity in his life, one that he fully intended to neglect coming to terms with; and Celeste...he had not known what to make of her at all.

Things had changed quite a bit since that night, Severus reflected. An achy feeling in his chest reminded him that he should get out of the cold night air, however, and he moved on.

When Severus returned to the manor the lights were all out save one lamp left on a small table in the entrance hallway, probably placed there for him by Constanza. He wearily took it and mounted the stairs. He could not pass by the nursery without entering, though. Outside the door he listened intently for a minute, and, hearing nothing, opened the door and stepped in.

The light from the lamp cast a comforting glow about the room as Severus set it down upon a high table near the cradle. With both hands resting on the edge of the railing he gazed down at Speranza for he knew not how long.

Eventually the door to Celeste's room opened and Celeste, who did not look as if she had yet been to bed, stepped in. "Severus," she said.

Severus looked up at her. He was not entirely unsettled at being caught by her. "Celeste," he said.

They stood side by side gazing into the cradle for some time. When Severus finally turned to look at her, he was struck by how weary she looked. In her frail stance, Severus could see something of his mother about her. An exhausted, weak frustration took him.

"You have no obligation to remain here," Severus said echoing his words of earlier, although in a much different tone.

Celeste made no reply, but instead turned her face away from Severus's and considered the black window in silence.

Emptily and wearily, Severus turned away too.

XXX

The following morning, Severus was sitting in his study with his breakfast on a tray in front of him as he read, when one of the ancient house elves came in and announced the arrival of a visitor. Fully believing it to be Dumbledore, Severus was surprised when he came to the top of the stairs and found a furious Alastor Moody waiting at the bottom for him, his errant eye swiveling in his head.

"Severus Snape," Moody said between narrow lips. "We meet again."

Severus could feel the hair rise on the back of his neck, but he kept an outward appearance of calm as he descended the stairs. "Moody," he said coolly. "How can I be of service to you?"

"You can leave your nauseating, subservient pretenses at the door for one thing, you slimy, sneaky—"Moody finished with a growl. His bulging eye stopped revolving and landed its gaze on Severus. "I know what you are. You may have hoodwinked Dumbledore, but I will not be fooled."

Severus stopped when he reached the landing and considered Moody with perplexity. Had Dumbledore told Moody already, and had Moody guessed the source of the leak? Severus found it unlikely that Dumbledore would have allowed Moody to figure it out. "I am afraid I do not know what you are talking about," Severus said.

Moody nearly spat with fury. "You can play ignorant, Snape, but I know what you're capable of. I know the people you associate with and I know the tricks you get up to. You may as well tell me now, because you will be telling the Wizemgamot while on veritaserum if you don't. Where were you last night?"

Severus, somewhat angered by now, cocked one eyebrow and repeated that he did not know what Moody was talking about.

"It was revenge, wasn't it? They tarnished the family name by prosecuting your father—this was your way of getting even. You are a shallow man, Snape. I'll ask you one more time, where were you last night?"

Severus was uncertain of what to say, not entirely knowing the situation as Moody seemed to. He felt as though he were missing something crucial. He cast about for a reply, but before he could voice it, before even he could evaluate whether or not he should bring Dumbledore into it—for telling Moody that he had been the one to alert Dumbledore could have negative consequences—a voice spoke up for him.

"He was with me."

Severus looked up in surprise to see Celeste standing halfway up the stairs, one hand gracefully curved over the railing of the banister. She was looking down her nose at Moody, who was also surprised by her presence. Severus had thought that that man would have been able to see her coming; then again, perhaps he had felt the need to keep his magical eye on Severus at all times.

"He spent the night with me, in my room," Celeste clarified. She slowly descended, pausing one step from the landing. "He is my husband, after all."

Moody was looking at her shrewdly. "Is that so?" he asked.

"Yes," was Celeste's cool reply. "Was there something in particular that you wanted, or is it customary practice among Aurors to routinely check on the matrimonial lives of former suspects?"

"Current suspects, madam," Moody corrected with a growl.

"Current? And what is my husband being charged with?" Celeste asked.

"He isn't being charged...yet."

"Then I take it you have no evidence against him. For anything."

"No. A slimy dark wizard like your husband, Mrs. Snape, is very careful about the trail he leaves behind."

"Ah, well. Slimy dark magic aside, if you have no warrant from the Ministry, you most certainly have no right to overstay your welcome here."

Moody clenched his brows, but said nothing. His eyes pierced Severus's face for a long moment before he growled and turned on his heel.

As the dark wooden doors slammed behind the Auror's form, Severus turned to his wife. "What in Salazar's name was that?"

Celeste held out a copy of the Daily Prophet, which until now had been concealed in the folds of her robes with her hand. On the front page was a photograph of the Dark Mark, hovering in the sky above a small cottage. "Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom were attacked yesterday evening. They are in St. Mungo's," she said.

Severus took the paper and gazed at it.

"But," she said, "you already knew that."

Severus looked up sharply. "What do you mean?" Celeste did not answer, but stared at him instead, long and hard.

"I was not there, if that is what you think," Severus said. "But if that is what you think, why did you lie for me?"

Celeste was silent. After a long moment, during which she seemed to find words, she said, "I felt...it was my duty, as your wife. To stand by you." Her gaze faltered and she looked down at her hands.

Severus stared at Celeste in beguilement. The words she said...They were unwarranted—and unwanted, definitely. Unwanted. There was no call for such a profession of loyalty. What on earth did this woman think she was doing, declaring such things to him? But still, the words she said...Severus wondered at what was behind them. He felt he would have legilimized her right then if only she had been making eye contact with him.

He remembered to speak. "Albus could have vouched for my innocence," he said.

"Albus Dumbledore would not have lied for you," Celeste said. "He is a good man."

Severus narrowed his eyes. "He would not have needed to lie for me, _madam_. It was him I was meeting with when this—"Severus brandished the paper, "—transpired." Severus tossed the paper onto the floor at their feet, spun on his heel and began to pace. Celeste let out a sigh of relief, and hearing it, Severus viewed her down-turned face surreptitiously as he walked. Had she really defended him, fully suspecting him of the allegations against him?

"Why did Moody come here, then?" she asked.

Severus scoffed. "You know as well as I do the reputation of my father—the reputation I inherited upon his death. And I can't say my profile with the law enforcement department is completely unblemished, either."

"But if you weren't implicated, they can't do anything to you."

"Wrong. They need someone to pin this to because the Longbottom's are far too popular for the culprit to go unpunished. It would reflect very poorly on the ministry. And if the—the _people_—"Severus stopped himself from saying Lestranges at the last minute "—responsible are not found, a scapegoat _will _be, and the scapegoat is whomever has a suitably poor record and cannot provide an alibi. Thus far, I fit that desciption. I cannot tell them where I was last night because it will not only incriminate myself, revealing that I was aware of the plot against the Longbottoms and yet did not alert anyone in time enough to avert disaster—which in itself is enough to place me in Azkaban—but it will also tarnish Dumbledore's reputation. Moody especially will not take it well that Dumbledore has been consorting with a former Death Eater behind his back."

Celeste stiffened at Severus's acknowledgement of his Death Eater past, but Severus did not notice.

"And so I have no real defense. There is only your word, and perhaps Dumbledore's, if he wishes to vouch for my character in general—something I am certain Dumbledore cannot afford to do for the sake of his reputation." Severus stopped pacing and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration.

Just then there was the sound of the Floo flaring up in the next room. Severus strode into the room, closely followed by Celeste. As Severus had expected, it was Dumbledore.

"Severus," Dumbledore nodded, gravely. "Celeste, my dear."

"Headmaster—the Longbottoms—"

"Yes, yes, I know, Severus," Dumbledore said in a very aged voice. "It is why I came."

"Moody was just here, accusing me of being behind it all. Were you able to alert him last night or not?"

"Yes, but unfortunately it was already too late, Severus. Too late." Dumbledore took an armchair uninvited and assumed a pose of weary resignation. "And Moody thinks it was you? You did not tell him you were with me last night, I presume?"

"No," Severus replied.

"Of course not. You have too much sense. You realize how unwise it would have been for you to tell him."

Severus did not reply. There was a tone of tentative negotiating, of talking persuasive, logical sense, in Dumbledore's voice. He wasn't merely confirming conjectures, he was laying the foundation for an argument to come, the one that would explain to Severus that he, Dumbledore, could not implicate himself. Not easily.

"Severus," Dumbledore said, "How do you want us to proceed?"

Unease set in. Dumbledore obviously had no easy, straightforward solution if he was asking for Severus's advice. He knew the Headmaster did not want to lose him—he was too valuable a tool to him, and there was always the altruistic Gryffindor streak to consider—but if there was nothing for Dumbledore to do, then...

"You can't vouch for him?" Celeste demanded from the corner.

Dumbledore and Severus turned to Celeste in surprise; they had forgotten her.

"No," Severus said, answering for Dumbledore. "This has to sort itself out some other way." Again, Severus set into pacing. "He can't speak for me in court."

Celeste was silent for a moment. "But can't he speak to the Wizemgamot—unofficially—before you are even called to appear? Aren't you _on_ the Wizemgamot," she asked, turning to Dumbledore.

"I am, my dear. But I can't go against the procedures of justice, and that is what your suggestion would require me to do." The old man wearily adjusted his half-moon spectacles and gazed at her.

Celeste's mind was churning rapidly, a thought forming. "But wouldn't it be enough for now for Severus to remind people—Aurors and justice ministers and others— of his close ties to you? Would that not undermine suspicion?" Severus and Dumbledore looked at her perplexedly, her hypothetical question making no sense to them whatsoever. "And," Celeste continued, "Wouldn't it help if Severus demonstrate his confidence in his ability to prove his innocence?"

"What are you saying, Celeste?" Severus asked.

"Would you be able to procure an invitation to the Wizemgamot commemoration dinner tonight for Severus, Professor?" Celeste asked of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's face slowly softened and lit up. "Quite easily, my dear."

Severus scanned back and forth between Dumbledore and Celeste, aggravated at not being a part of their mutual understanding. "What is this?"

Dumbledore twinkled merrily at Severus. "The Wizemgamot dinner tonight, Severus. There will be justice ministers, Wizemgamot members, ministry officials, and Aurors alike, all there tonight to see as you walk in with me as my guest." Dumbledore leaned back into his armchair and continued. "I will not have to speak a word for you. The gesture will say it all."

Severus searched his face, and then Celeste's too. "Will it work?"

"It may do," Dumbledore said, rising and walking up to Severus to shake his hand before leaving. "She," he said in a conspiratorial whisper as he leaned close, "is every bit as clever as she is beautiful." Severus glanced over Dumbledore's shoulder at Celeste, who had heard every word.

"I must leave now and find that invitation for you. Will you be coming?" he asked of Celeste.

"If I may, Professor. I have an invitation."

"Very well then. I will owl the invitation as soon as possible, Severus. Good-bye." With that, the Floo flared green and Dumbledore disappeared into the fireplace.

Severus and Celeste were left alone then, across the room from each other but considering one another intently. At last, Celeste broke the connection of gazes and ducked her head as she marched toward the doors of the room. She paused at the jamb. "I have to send an owl to Malfoy, letting him know that I will be going with my husband instead," she said. She then stepped from view behind the doorway.

Severus watched after her.

XXX

Lord of the Pencil : Who ARE you? A barbarian warlord? And put those sharp pointy weapons away...

Kerichi : I'm not a psych major, but if I have to be to get Severus horizontal, then so be it. Inconceivable how my lust for Snape pervades life. (Thumbs up for Mr. Darcy)

Thank you everyone else for all of the inspiring reviews. They are greatly appreciated.

Now, how would everyone feel about me starting the Third Prophecy next? Or would you prefer The Potion Master's Ward? Let me know (check my profile if you have no idea what I'm talking about).

BTW, I apologize deeply if I'm just not pulling this plot off so well (In this chapter and at the dinner party especially). I haven't been putting much effort into carefully weighing how much emphasis should go where when it comes to moments of heightened tension and importance and blah blah I have no frigging idea what I am saying. I just don't have a lot of time for fanfiction right now and my original fiction is sapping all of the grade A quality artistic juices. This baby gets the dregs that are left over. Anyways, I need sleep...glorious sellp. Tak me awaye sellp. Snnnnxxx.


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